A growing number of states are pushing back against sweeping changes to the US childhood vaccine schedule.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an overhaul of the immunization schedule January 5, paring the number of universally recommended immunizations from 17 to 11.

Since then, at least 17 states have announced that they won’t follow new CDC vaccine schedule: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota,New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Instead, these states say they plan to follow vaccine guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which continues to recommend immunization plans approved by the CDC prior to the Trump administration.

Choosing evidenced-based vaccine advice

“The decision to change CDC’s childhood immunization schedule is reckless and deeply dangerous,” said Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD, in a statement announcing the state’s rejection of the new vaccine schedule.

The new CDC vaccine schedule, based on immunization policy in Denmark, “abandons decades of rigorous, evidence-based science and replaces clear public health guidance with confusion and doubt,” Goldstein said. “At a moment when we are seeing measles outbreaks, the resurgence of whooping cough, and a flu season that has already taken the lives of children in our state, this ill-advised federal action puts families in an impossible position and puts infants, children, and communities at risk.”

Minnesota health officials said they want to help alleviate confusion over vaccines.

“Aligning our recommendations with professional medical associations helps provide clarity and stability for families and providers by using a proven set of recommendations that doctors, and other clinicians, already know and trust,” Minnesota Commissioner of Health Brooke Cunningham, MD, PhD, said in a Minnesota Department of Health news release.

Several California counties—including Los Angeles County,Santa Barbara County, and San Diego County—also rejected the new CDC schedule.

In addition, Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital, a pediatric hospital that serves both Missouri and Kansas, announced that it plans to continue following AAP vaccine guidance.

Calling on Congress to investigate

Late last week, the AAP and more than 200 health groups sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers “to conduct swift and robust oversight regarding the abrupt changes to the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.”

In their letter, the groups urge Congress “to investigate why the schedule was changed, why credible scientific evidence was ignored, and why the committee charged with advising the HHS [Health and Human Services] Secretary on immunizations did not discuss the schedule changes as a part of their public meeting process.”

Health officials, largely in blue states, have banded together in recent months to protect vaccine access and provide evidence-based health information to their residents.

California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii formed the West Coast Health Alliance in early September. Just weeks later, nine states announced the formation of the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, as well as Baltimore and New York City.

Fifteen states and territories led by Democratic governors have united to create the Governor’s Public Health Alliance, which includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.

The federal government’s rapid shifts and the unnecessary confusion surrounding vaccine policy put public health at risk.

Legislators in several of these states have passed legislation in recent month to protect access to vaccines, in spite of any action taken by the federal government.

Both California and Illinois passed laws last year empowering their states to follow the vaccine advice of independent medical organizations, rather than a federal advisory panel to the CDC whose members were handpicked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore last week proposed similar legislation, called the Vax Act, which would allow the state to bypass federal vaccine guidance. 

The bill would permit the state health secretary to recommend vaccines and other preventive care based on guidance from the AAP, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“The federal government’s rapid shifts and the unnecessary confusion surrounding vaccine policy put public health at risk,” Moore said in a statement. “In Maryland, we will continue to protect our people by ensuring our guidance is driven by proven science, not political headwinds. Our legislation reflects a simple belief: access to lifesaving medicines like vaccines is essential to the health and safety of every Marylander.”