The official recommendations changed in 2025 and 2026. What should I believe?
Here is what the checked sources say. Each title links to the original.
Changes to CDC Vaccine Recommendations in 2025 and 2026
A nonpartisan summary for Congress dated April 28, 2026; it covers the procedural and legal history, not the clinical evidence for each change. In June 2025 HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced all 17 members of CDC's vaccine advisory committee, which then moved COVID-19 and the infant hepatitis B dose to shared clinical decision-making and advised against the combined MMRV shot. In January 2026 CDC issued a new childhood schedule without the committee. As of the report, a March 2026 federal court stay had paused changes made after June 11, 2025.
The 2026 Childhood Immunization Schedule
This June 2026 report explains the January 2026 CDC childhood schedule, written by federal officials without the usual advisory committee process. It removed no vaccines but moved hepatitis A, meningococcal ACWY and RSV to risk-based or shared decisions, moved rotavirus and flu to shared decision-making, and changed HPV doses. HHS cited other countries' schedules, public trust and safety; medical societies opposed it. As of the report's June 2026 date, a court had suspended it in March 2026 and the government was appealing.
AAP Releases Recommended Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for 2026
In January 2026 the American Academy of Pediatrics published its own schedule, recommending routine protection against 18 diseases, including RSV, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, flu, COVID-19 and meningococcal disease, largely unchanged from its August 2025 guidance. The AAP, which used to issue a joint schedule with CDC, says recent CDC changes "depart from longstanding medical evidence." Twelve medical groups endorse the AAP schedule, including family doctors, obstetricians, the AMA and pharmacists. This reflects AAP's position as of January 2026.
History
The project's own account of its history. The Vaccine Integrity Project, at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, says it formed in 2025 "to promote the continued grounding of immunization policies and programs in the best available science." It says it gathered feedback from public health, academia, industry, insurers, medical associations and community groups, and drew eight high-level recommendations from that feedback, including stabilizing the vaccine safety system, safeguarding insurance coverage and continuing the flow of data for decision-making.