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The U.S. childhood vaccination schedule has been dramatically reduced, purportedly because, as federal health officials argued, the now-discarded schedule recommended children get far more vaccines than kids in “peer countries.” (Branswell, 1/9)

Vermont officials and health experts are reaffirming the state’s commitment to its existing childhood immunization schedule, which recommends many of the vaccines that the CDC had removed. (Gieger, 1/8)

North Carolina’s vaccination schedule for children requires two vaccines — against hepatitis B and meningococcal disease — that are no longer recommended by the CDC. Despite the mismatch between the North Carolina and federal schedules, North Carolina health officials said Wednesday that the state has no plans to change any recommendations about vaccines. Requirements for vaccines that are needed before a child can attend day care and school will not change. (Fernandez, 1/9)

Children’s Mercy says they will not follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s revised recommendations for childhood vaccinations, but instead will follow the recommendations of The American Academy of Pediatrics. (Alviz-Gransee, 1/8)

More on flu, HPV, hepatitis, measles and covid —

After skyrocketing in mid-December and causing a torrent of fever, chills and coughs, influenza appears to be retreating somewhat in New York City.“There is some good news: Over the last two weeks, cases have declined,” Dr. Michelle Morse, the acting health commissioner for New York City, said Thursday at a news conference. (Goldstein, 1/8)

The Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP), an initiative of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), announced this week that it will conduct an independent, transparent review of the scientific evidence related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The announcement comes amid growing uncertainty around US vaccine policy and the dismantling of long-standing immunization recommendations. (Bergeson, 1/8)

After plunging over the past several decades, hepatitis A and B rates could climb again now that the CDC has removed both vaccines from its list of universally recommended childhood immunizations, public health experts warned. "We're going to start to see diseases that we thought were on the ash heap of history," Saul Karpen, MD, PhD, president of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, told MedPage Today. (McCreary, 1/8)

As measles outbreaks flared up across the US last year, causing a record number of cases, Scott Thorpe kept a wary eye on Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in South Carolina’s upstate region, it’s a community with pockets of residents who have particularly low vaccination rates. (McPhillips, 1/8)

COVID-19 is still killing more than 100,000 Americans a year, new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study shows—underscoring how the virus remains a major health threat even if the height of the pandemic has long subsided. In a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, CDC researchers estimated that there were 43.6 million COVID-19–associated illnesses and 101,300 resulting deaths in the U.S. in the period from October 2022 to September 2023, and 33.0 million illnesses and 100,800 deaths subsequently between October 2023 to September 2024. (Fleur Afshar, 1/8)

On the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force —

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is quietly undermining an influential task force that has for years played a key role in combating chronic disease, making cancer screenings and medications accessible to millions of Americans. The task force has not met in person since March. Without citing a reason, Mr. Kennedy abruptly postponed its July meeting, when members were scheduled to discuss approaches to preventing heart disease. Amid the fall federal shutdown, his office also postponed the task force’s November meeting. Neither was rescheduled, according to two people from groups that typically attend the meetings. (Agrawal, Astor and Blum, 1/9)