1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

Since his appointment in 2025, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has politicized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote his dangerous anti-vaccination agenda. Now, the CDC has released recommendations for childhood vaccination that contradict established science and threaten decades of efforts to control and eliminate infectious and deadly diseases. The CDC’s new childhood immunization schedule, released amid a record-high surge in hospitalizations for flu-like respiratory illnesses, no longer recommends routine childhood vaccination against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, some types of meningitis, and RSV. These sweeping changes were made behind closed doors without any opportunity for formal public comment or rigorous input from scientific experts. Medical experts note that the CDC’s unilateral and potentially illegal vaccination schedule changes will worsen the ongoing national decline in vaccination rates, reduce access to care by requiring unnecessary doctors’ visits to obtain vaccines, and endanger insurance coverage for shots. Congress must demand a full investigation of Kennedy’s attack on childhood vaccination access, while governors must act to ensure continued state-level access to vaccinesto prevent needless illness and death.