Canadian kids will feel the fallout from RFK Jr.’s slashing of routine vaccines

Iris Gorfinkel is a family physician and a clinical researcher in Toronto.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an event with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 14, in Washington.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press

Early this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rewrote its childhood immunization schedule. A routine process that had protected kids against 17 diseases will now only protect against 11, with six vaccines lopped off the schedule. This sweeping shift in U.S. policy could fuel dangerous comebacks of preventable diseases in Canada.

​Childhood vaccinations against tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, chicken pox and HPV still remain, but certain others will no longer be automatic, including influenza, COVID, hepatitis A and/or B depending on age group, meningitis and RSV (the number‑one reason infants land in hospital). Some vaccines are now advised just for “high-risk” children or only after discussing it with a health care provider. Compounding the confusion is what constitutes “high risk,” meaning a child’s chance of receiving a vaccine can depend on which doctor’s door their parents walk through. One unprotected child with rotavirus on a cross-border road trip can

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