NJ keeps pediatric vaccine rules despite CDC rollback of recommendations

💉 CDC rolls back widely recommended childhood vaccines, alarming pediatric experts.

🏫 New Jersey will continue evidence-based vaccine guidance for schools, child care, and insurance coverage.

⚠️ Public health leaders say the changes could lead to preventable hospitalizations and child deaths.

While the federal government has cut the number of widely recommended pediatric vaccines, New Jersey was holding steady on evidence-based guidance to start 2026.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved removing across-the-board recommendations for flu and COVID vaccines for children, as well as rotavirus, meningitis, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.

Public health experts have warned the rollback from 17 to 11 widely recommended vaccines could lead to preventable hospitalizations and deaths.

Pediatricians warn CDC decision will undermine trust and safety

"At a time when parents, pediatricians and the public are looking for clear guidance and accurate information, this ill-considered decision will sow further chaos and confusion and erode confidence in immunizations," American Academy of Pediatrics President, Dr. Andrew D. Racine said in a statement posted to social media.

In New Jersey, vaccines remain covered by insurance and available through the Vaccines for Children state program.

New Jersey’s minimum requirements for school and child care attendance also remain unchanged by federal actions to date, as outlined under New Jersey Administrative Code, state officials said.

“New Jersey is taking action to provide equitable access to vaccines, achieve community protection, and build sustained trust in vaccination,” state Acting Health Commissioner Jeffrey A. Brown said in a written release on Monday.

Read More: Public health collaboratives created by NJ, other U.S. coastal states

Federal officials cite international models, experts dispute claims

Federal officials — led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have said they are modeling immunization guidelines on standards used in “20 peer, developed nations,” while name-checking only Denmark in an online press release.

Denmark's population is around six million, compared to New Jersey’s nine million residents — and less than 2% of the U.S. population of about 340 million.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said, adding the change would strengthen transparency and informed consent.

“All vaccines currently recommended by CDC will remain covered by insurance without cost sharing. No family will lose access,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in the same press release.

A large number of credentialed doctors and career public health advocates disagree.

“They’re going to bring back suffering and death. I don’t say that with any hyperbole, that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, Chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said as quoted by the New York Times last month.

The rotavirus vaccine is recommended for all children in 17 of the 20 countries — vaccines against meningococcal disease are recommended in 16 of the “peer” nations cited, Reuters reported.

Despite those recommendations, both have been bumped by the CDC to a second or third tier of vaccines for U.S. children.

These vaccinations can be given only after parents consult healthcare providers under what is dubbed “shared clinical decision-making.”

Flu vaccine change comes as pediatric hospitalizations surge

Removal of the recommendation for flu vaccines comes as New Jersey and the rest of the country has seen a sharp spike in hospitalizations from flu.

ABC News reported on Monday that the CDC estimates there have been 120,000 hospitalizations so far this season, a 48.1% increase from the prior week.

Across the 2024-2025 season, the nation recorded 280 pediatric deaths from the flu — the second highest number since the CDC began tracking them in 2004.

That was only behind the 288 child deaths during the 2009–2010 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic.

Read More: Pediatric flu deaths, brain swelling highlight need for vaccination

“Federal efforts to reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all children in the United States are not supported by the available data nor the consensus of public health and medical experts,” Brown continued. "Instead, deterring participation in vaccination risks leaving children vulnerable to serious and preventable infections."

“Public health must always consider local context. Unlike countries that have more tools to prevent and treat these highly-transmissible diseases, such as universal health care systems and different primary care access models, the U.S. health system relies heavily on vaccination to prevent avoidable illness, hospitalization, and long-term complications,” Brown also said.

In September, New Jersey and six other states created the Northeast Public Health Collaborative — while four states on the West Coast also banded together in the face of "chaos" and confusion over vaccine recommendations.

The collective was announced between sessions of the federal panel for vaccine recommendations, which was dismantled and then rebuilt by Kennedy.

Late on Tuesday, the American Academy of Pediatrics also confirmed it would continue to share its own, "evidence-based vaccination schedule.

"Traditionally, health experts, scientists and pediatricians have continued to review new data as part of the immunization recommendation process, helping to protect infants and children against some of the most dangerous preventable diseases. The AAP recommendations are rooted in science and have been trusted by parents and pediatricians for decades," the organization said in a post to its social media accounts.

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