Immunization Updates
Each year, experts carefully review the pediatric immunization schedule to be sure it reflects the most up-to-date science on safety, effectiveness, and disease prevention. As your family’s healthcare team, we want to keep you informed about these newest updates and what they mean.
In light of these recent changes, at Center for Lifetime Health, we continue to recommend that caregivers to follow the vaccination guidelines establish by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We also recognize that it is most important to foster transparent communication with the goal to guide and inform parents so that you can make a knowledgeable decision about what is right for your family. As always, the choice to vaccinate your child is up to you as the parent, but as partners in your child’s healthcare we are here to provide clear, evidence- based recommendations to help inform your decision making.
In the past, updates to immunization schedules have been based on specific review of new research and safety data, how well vaccines are working over time, and changes in disease patterns in the community. In short, the schedule evolves because science evolves—and these updates help us protect children as safely and effectively as possible. The goal is to strengthen protection when children are the most vulnerable.
This year’s changes have come without some of the same specific review and recommendations from national experts that we have relied on in the past to make decisions about updated pediatric immunization schedules and we recognize this can lead to some confusion. While this topic is incredibly complex, what hasn’t changed is the science and evidence behind why and when immunizations are recommended.
What’s New?
The CDC has reduced the number of universally recommended vaccines from about 17 to around 11.
While this might sound appealing, there is concern that the goal to align the immunization schedule with those of other developed countries will not fit the needs of the population in the United States and our complex medical system and children could be harmed. A single universal immunization schedule is impractical because disease prevalence, transmission patterns, and risk profiles vary widely across regions. How often and how many vaccines children in the U.S. receive is based on times when vaccines will work best with the child’s immune system.
So besides reducing the number of recommended vaccines, what else has changed? In short there has been a shift in the categories for recommended vaccines into three groups- all children, high-risk groups, and shared decision making. Shared- decision making means having a conversation with a health care provider about the risks and benefits of a vaccine which is something that is already being done. Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, COVID-19, Flu, Hep A, Meningococcal are all now recommended based on individual risk/ discussion in shared decision making. In addition to these changes, HPV has been decreased from 2 doses to 1 dose.
The good news is that as of right now, all vaccinations for children are still available and can be requested.
Do vaccines overload my child’s immune system?
No. Babies are exposed to thousands of germs every day through normal activities like eating and playing. Vaccines use only a small number of antigens (an antigen is a tiny, harmless piece of a germ that teaches the immune system what to look for. It helps the body practice defending itself against a disease without actually getting sick) and are carefully timed to work with a child’s developing immune system.
Why are vaccines given at such a young age?
Young children are at the highest risk for serious complications from many preventable diseases. The timing of vaccines is carefully designed to work with a child’s developing immune system and to protect children before they are likely to be exposed to serious illness.
Why does it seem like the immunization schedule today includes so many more vaccines than in years prior?
While it might seem like children are getting more vaccines than they have in prior decades, what has actually happened is that science has allowed for protection against more illnesses with exposure to less antigens. For example, in 1983 children were vaccinated against eight diseases but were exposed to about 15,000 antigens in those vaccines. In 2025, children were vaccinated against 16 diseases but were exposed to less than 200 antigens. This is because vaccine research and development has made them more effective, more efficient, and less taxing on the immune system. Saying that the schedule has tripled just based on number of immunizations, does not take into account that the components of those vaccines is far less than before.
Why does it seem like children in other countries get less vaccines than children in the United States?
This seems to be a popular claim based on a misunderstanding of the real math. Claims that are made suggesting that a child in the United State gets more vaccines than other countries are made by counting each vaccine including combination vaccines as individual injections. The reality is that an average child in the United Stated will receive only 28 doses by the time they are two years old. Combination vaccines have allowed for more protection when children are most vulnerable without having to get more injections.
It is also important to remember that vaccine recommendations are largely based on a population’s risk of exposure to disease and how that disease impacts health which requires strategies to be tailored to regional epidemiology.
Why do my children need to get immunizations if I consider them healthy and low risk?
Some children cannot be vaccinated due to age or medical conditions. When vaccination rates stay high, community protection (herd immunity) reduces the spread of disease. At the end of the day, any child no matter how healthy they are can be significantly impacted with lifelong implications by vaccine preventable diseases.
What about vaccine safety?
Vaccines undergo years of rigorous testing before approval and are studied in millions of children worldwide. Most vaccine side effects are mild and temporary, such as soreness at the injection site, or a low- grade fever. Serious vaccine side effects are extremely rare. Serious allergic reactions occur in approximately 1 per million doses. These are continuously monitored through national safety systems. The risk of severe complications from the disease’s vaccines prevent is far higher than the risk from the vaccines themselves.
Do vaccines really work?
Absolutely! That’s why we use them. Vaccines create immunity without the risks of natural infection which can be detrimental to a child’s health. Here are some examples:
-Since routine childhood immunizations were introduced in the U.S., diseases like polio, diphtheria, and measles have decreased by over 99%.
-The birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine specifically protects babies against infection during delivery or by another caregiver who might not know they are infected with Hepatitis B. Per the CDC, it is estimated that over 2 million people are living with Hepatitis B and about 2/3, or around 67%, of people with chronic hepatitis do not know that they have it. Before the Hepatitis B vaccine was recommended, tens of thousands of U.S. babies were infected annually. Hepatitis B can cause liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other serious conditions. Infants infected in the first year have a >90% changes of developing chronic infection, and about 25% of those will develop cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure.
-The rotavirus vaccine prevents an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 hospitalizations related to dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea in young kids each year.
-Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles. Before the measles vaccine, nearly all children got measles, and 1–2 out of every 1,000 infected children died.
-Before the chickenpox vaccine, about 10,000 children were hospitalized each year in the U.S. After vaccination became routine, hospitalizations dropped by over 90%.
-Every year hundreds of children unfortunately die from influenza. In 2024, 89% of approximately 280 pediatric flu deaths were unvaccinated.
-Tetanus vaccines are incredibly important. Tetanus infection has a fatality rate of up to 10–20%, even with modern medical care.
-The pertussis vaccine decreased cases per year by 98%.
-RSV is the number one disease that hospitalizes infants in the United States. The RSV vaccine decreased hospitalizations by 80%.
-The HPV vaccine is estimated to prevent more than 90% of cancers caused by HPV infection including cervical, anal, and some head and neck cancers. HPV infections from the high- risk types targeted by the vaccine have dropped about 88% among teen girls in the U.S., compared with before the vaccine was introduced. Despite the recent changes to recommendations, evidence suggests that 2 doses are still best practice. 1 in 4 people who receive only one dose may not mount an antibody response against certain strains, and another suggests that nearly 20% didn’t make detectable antibodies against HPV 6 after a single dose.
-Meningococcal disease is rare but devastating. Without immunization and treatment up to 80% of cases are fatal, and 20%-60% experience permanent disability including loss of limbs.
Are vaccinations just a “money grab”?
We hear this concern a lot, and it Is understandable to be skeptical. It is important to consider how vaccines actually work from a cost and decision- making standpoint. Vaccines are one of the least profitable medical products and make up a very small portion of any pharmaceutical company’s revenue compared to other things like blood pressure medications. Most childhood immunizations are only given a few times in a lifetime and not continuously. Prevention against vaccine preventable disease actually saves the healthcare system money by reducing hospitalizations, ICU stays, surgeries, long term disability, and cancer treatment. Most importantly, the organizations who make vaccine recommendations do not profit from them. These recommendations come from independent experts who are required to disclose any conflicts of interest and do not receive any type of payment for recommending vaccines. And finally, we do not get paid more for vaccinating patients. The truth is that vaccines often barely cover their own cost but continuing to offer them as a part of standard of care to protect children is most important.
What are the implications for the new vaccine schedule recommendations?
All in all, the science has not changed. It is difficult to predict which children will get seriously ill from a vaccine preventable disease so choosing to skip or delay some vaccines is risky. There is concern that reducing the number of recommended vaccines will result in fewer children getting vaccinated leading to more preventable complications, changes to access to immunizations, and confusion with messaging that vaccines may be less important.
We know that every family is unique, and questions are always welcome. Our role is to provide clear, evidence-based information so you can make informed decisions about your child’s health. The providers at Center for Lifetime Health are happy to talk through what each vaccine protects against, benefits and possible side effects of each immunization, and what to do if your child is behind on vaccines.
If you’d like to learn more, we recommend these reliable, science-based sources:
• HealthyChildren.org by the American Academy of Pediatrics
• Vaccine Information Statements (VIS), available at our office
Thank you for trusting us with your child’s care. Keeping children healthy and safe is a partnership, and we’re honored to be part of your family’s healthcare team. If you have questions or would like to discuss the updated immunization schedule, immunizing your child, or any other questions you might have, please don’t hesitate to reach out or ask during your next visit.
References:
American Academy of Pediatrics National Foundation for Infectious Disease
Center for Disease Control (CDC)- Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, Child Immunization Schedule Addendum, Data on Vaccine Effectiveness, VAERS Surveillance Manual, About CDC’s Safety Monitoring, Vaccine Safety Datalink,
World Health Organization- Why Childhood Immunization Schedules Matter
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society