By unilaterally gutting the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have replaced decades of successful evidence-based public health policy with ideology, conspiracy thinking, and medical malpractice. This is not reform. It is vandalism.

Without meaningful consultation with pediatricians, public health officials, or the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — the expert body legally charged with making vaccine recommendations — the administration has slashed the number of universally recommended pediatric vaccines from 17 to 11. Some have been demoted to only high-risk individuals or to “shared clinical decision-making,” both of which are euphemisms that translate in practice to delays, missed doses, and declining coverage.

Here are some of the specific changes that have been implemented:

The recommended dosage for the HPV vaccine, which has been shown not only to reduce the incidence of acute infection but virtually to eliminate subsequent cervical cancer, was reduced from two doses to one. A lower dose will reduce efficacy and leave women prone to both infection and later malignancy.

Immunizations no longer universally recommended but only henceforth for certain high-risk groups or populations will include RSV; hepatitis A; hepatitis B; dengue; Neisseria meningitidis bacteria........

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