On January 5, 2026 US “Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill, in his role as Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), signed a decision memorandum accepting recommendations from a January 2, 2026 comprehensive scientific assessment of U.S. childhood immunization practices. [1, 2]
That same day President Trump announcedthat the United States of America updated their Childhood Vaccination Schedule where “recommended vaccines” will be aligned with other “peer, developed countries”, such as Denmark, as directed by Trump’s December 5, 2025 [10] Executive Order. [3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12]
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), who’s business revolves around vaccines, and has a long history of being sponsored by vaccine manufactures (via their 1989 “Friends of Childrens Fund” [6]), in a press release “opposed” this decision, claiming it was arbitrary. [7] Only weeks before their governement funding was cut by RFK jr.
Note that AAP in 2004 [8] had “approximately 57,000 members in the United States, Canada and Latin America”, and 2026 they claimed 67,000 members, a growth of only 10K members, 50K in 1996.
Recommended means no longer “mandatory”, and parents could make that decision in conjunction with their child’s doctor, not the government.