Opinion: RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul endangers Americans, especially students |
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On Jan. 5, the Department of Health and Human Services announced an unprecedented overhaul of the U.S. childhood immunization schedule. The change dropped the number of universally recommended vaccinations from 17 to 11. Immunizations against illnesses such as hepatitis, influenza and meningitis are no longer recommended for all children.
The revised schedule, modeled after Denmark’s inoculation recommendations, has sparked backlash from health care organizations and experts alike. Institutions such as the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics are fighting to block these changes in court.
These adjustments come at a time of widespread distrust of both vaccines and modern medicine; fewer parents than ever agree with the CDC vaccine schedules, citing political influence as a primary factor. This alteration is meant to quell those fears, allowing increased parental control. But, applying the vaccine guidelines from a country like Denmark, whose population is only a fraction of the U.S., is a great risk.
Although the effects of the new........