Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and a medical doctor, is furious with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after they drastically cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines, according to The Hill. This massive change, reducing the standard schedule from 17 vaccines down to just 11, happened under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Interestingly, this review was initiated after President Trump ordered health officials to compare the existing US schedule against those used by “peer nations” and look into recommending fewer shots overall. The goal was clearly to find a balance, but Senator Cassidy believes the administration has gone way too far.
Under the new guidance, children will still receive standard vaccinations for things like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. However, the CDC decided to scrap the general recommendation for six major shots. Kids won’t automatically be recommended shots for rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, or hepatitis B anymore.
This is a massive shift in public health guidance
Instead of a universal recommendation for those six, the CDC says physicians and parents should now make those decisions based on the individual characteristics of the child. Removing the standard flu shot recommendation is particularly impactful, and I think that’s going to cause a lot of uncertainty for busy families who relied on the previous standard schedule.
Secretary Kennedy, however, defended the decision, arguing the update “protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.” But Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, isn’t buying that explanation. His frustration runs deep because he actually cast a key vote supporting Kennedy’s nomination for HHS secretary back in February. Now, he’s publicly blasting the change.
The senator pointed out that health officials completely bypassed normal safety and scientific procedures when making this change, which is unfortunately not their first time doing it. He stressed that they didn’t utilize a scientific review committee and totally ignored the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. Health officials “totally bypassed” those normal checks and balances, he said.
Cassidy took to social media to blast the lack of transparency, stressing that the vaccine schedule is designed to be a recommendation, not a mandate. “Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,” he wrote.
He didn’t mince words when discussing the changes. He told interviewers, “Let’s just take care of people and move beyond your ideology.” As a doctor, he feels the current decision-makers are missing critical knowledge. “I wish the people making this decision knew what I knew,” Cassidy said. His message is clear: bypassing science for political reasons is only going to hurt public health in the long run.
Published: Jan 12, 2026 11:00 am