By Adam Cancryn, Meg Tirrell, Brenda Goodman, Katherine Dillinger, CNN
(CNN) — The US Department of Health and Human Services is planning to overhaul the schedule of recommended vaccines for children in the US, a person familiar with the plans told CNN on Thursday.
The proposed new schedule would recommend fewer shots, bringing it closer in line with what’s recommended in other developed countries. The expectation is that the US schedule will be close to, if not identical to, recommendations in Denmark, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the matter.
The plan has not been finalized and could still change. HHS had planned to make the announcement Friday afternoon, the person said, but it was pushed to 2026 so as not to conflict with White House plans to announce further efforts to lower drug costs through “Most Favored Nation” pricing.
An HHS spokesperson declined to comment and referred questions to the agency’s earlier statement that it had postponed a “children’s health announcement” until next year.
The planned overhaul comes weeks after President Donald Trump ordered officials to review the childhood vaccine schedule and weigh recommending fewer shots.
“It is ridiculous!” Trump wrote earlier this month in a Truth Social post about the current US schedule. “That is why I have just signed a Presidential memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘FAST TRACK’ a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule.”
In a post on X, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded: “Thank you, Mr. President. We’re on it.”
Denmark’s 2025 vaccine schedule, published by the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that the country vaccinates children against fewer infectious diseases than the US does.
Denmark doesn’t currently recommend immunization against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for children; the US does. RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants.
It also doesn’t recommend the rotavirus, pneumococcal, hepatitis A, meningococcal or chickenpox vaccines for children, while these vaccines are on the US schedule.
“Why would we ever want to emulate that?” asked Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “They made a financial decision. They decided to allow that degree of suffering and hospitalization. They didn’t want to spend that much money per hospitalization prevented.”
Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, newly named acting director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, gave a presentation on the Danish vaccine schedule at this month’s meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisers.
“I think one of the reasons Denmark may do a better job at making their vaccine recommendations is, it’s not a politicized discussion,” said Hoeg, a dual citizen of the US and Denmark. She described a multiparty system, culture of debate and strong acknowledgment of knowns and unknowns.
Hoeg noted that with fewer vaccines, there’s less exposure to aluminum, which is used as an adjuvant — an ingredient added to create a stronger immune response. It’s used in several childhood vaccines because it enables doctors to give fewer doses, which requires a smaller amount of vaccine. Despite broad evidence th