The Trump administration enacted policies that weakened vaccination programs and children’s health care. It replaced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory committee, excluded major medical groups from vaccine decision-making, and reconsidered or reversed long-standing vaccine recommendations, including for infants and COVID-19 vaccines. Workforce cuts at federal health agencies raised concerns about sustaining immunization efforts. The administration also opposed vaccine mandates, altered CDC messaging in ways experts say promoted misinformation, and reduced funding for vaccine research while imposing stricter approval requirements. Beyond vaccines, it cut school mental-health funding, restricted Medicaid coverage protections for young children, proposed limits on disability benefits, and advanced policies projected to increase the number of uninsured children.
- On June 9, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removed all 17 members of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and “reconstituted” the panel under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (hhs.gov)
- Former ACIP members and professional groups warned the purge weakens U.S. immunization policy and could erode access to lifesaving vaccines. (reuters.com)
- The revamped ACIP moved to review long‑approved shots and the childhood vaccine schedule, with some appointees known for vaccine skepticism. (cnbc.com)
- In March 2025, HHS announced a reorganization with large workforce reductions—including thousands at CDC and FDA—raising concerns about public‑health capacity to sustain vaccination programs. (govexec.com)
- Top medical associations – including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others – were told they could no longer participate in ACIP workgroups, which evaluate data from vaccine manufacturers and the CDC to formulate vaccination recommendation proposals that the full ACIP committee then votes on. (apnews.com)
- HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announced through an X.com video that the COVID-19 vaccine would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. (x.com)
- The new ACIP panel voted to end the decades-long recommendation for universal infant Hepatitis B vaccinations, despite the vaccine’s safety and the highly transmissible nature of Hepatitis B, which can live on surfaces for up to a week and spread through microscopic amounts of blood or fluid. (cbsnews.com)
¶ The administration attacked vaccine mandates
- Trump issued an executive order banning federal funding from going to schools that have COVID-19 vaccine mandates. (whitehouse.gov)
- Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered prosecutors to drop the government’s case against Dr. Kirk Moore, a Utah plastic surgeon who was charged with conspiracy against the United States by giving COVID-19 vaccine cards to patients who had not received the shot. (propublica.org)
- The Trump administration changed the CDC’s website to include a disclaimer suggesting vaccines may cause autism, despite decades of research to the contrary. (ama-assn.org)
- HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he was pulling $500 million in funding for research into mRNA vaccines to combat diseases like COVID-19 and the flu. (bbc.com)
- The Trump administration ended funding for several HIV vaccine research programs, saying that “current approaches are enough to counter the virus.” (healthbeat.com)
- The Trump administration began requiring randomized, controlled trial data for approval of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy persons between 6 months and 65 years of age, rather than the normal proof of immunoresponse trials, increasing the cost of developing new vaccines. (nejm.org)
- Reports indicate that the Trump administration will begin requiring “pre-market randomized trials” for most new vaccines, and will require those trials before any vaccine can be recommended for pregnant women. (nytimes.com)
- The Trump administration stopped paying out $1 billion in federal grants that schools used to provide mental health care to children. (npr.org)
- The Trump administration said it would no longer approve Section 1115 Medicaid demonstrations that provide more than 12 months of continuous eligibility. Most of those demonstrations are designed to ensure children do no have gaps in health-care coverage between the ages of 0 and 6 years old, meaning this policy will prevent states from ensuring infants and toddlers have access to health care. (ccf.georgetown.edu)
- Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” will increase the number of uninsured Americans by 10 million over the next ten years, increased to 14 million by the expiration of the ACA’s premium tax credits. It’s unclear how many of those will be children, but Medicaid currently covers 4 out of 10 children in the United States, meaning that cuts to Medicaid are cuts to children’s health care. (kff.org)
- The Trump administration proposed a new rule making it harder for as many as 100,000 children with disabilities to receive their full Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which families often use to cover medical care, therapies and adaptive equipment that children with disabilities rely on to thrive. (firstfocus.org)