Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing to overhaul how the United States develops and categorises its childhood vaccine recommendations.
Kennedy posted a Request for Information on Friday, which was published Monday in the Federal Register, inviting public comment over the next 30 days on potential changes to vaccine classifications.
The document extensively revisits US vaccine decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic and how “public trust in Federal public health agencies declined measurably” as a result.
Kennedy wrote directly to that concern, stating: “The durability of any vaccine recommendation framework depends on the public’s trust in the process that produces it.”
He added: “Trust is essential both to public health objectives and to effective, informed individual choice.”
The RFI follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump two weeks ago, calling for the number of CDC-recommended childhood vaccines to be reduced from 17 to 11.
Trump’s order stated that vaccine decisions “should be aligned with scientific evidence and best practices from peer, developed countries,” framing the move as a corrective step.
Among the key questions posed in the RFI is whether the current three-tier system for categorising vaccine recommendations requires fundamental reform and restructuring.
Those three categories currently cover vaccines recommended universally for all children, vaccines for high-risk groups, and vaccines based on shared clinical decision-making.
Kennedy questioned whether the existing framework inadvertently narrows the scope of meaningful medical consultation, asking: “Do the current categories unintentionally imply that parental permission, individual consent, or meaningful clinical discussion applies only to shared clinical decision-making recommendations?”
The HHS also wants to understand whether the public believes current categories adequately “convey meaningful differences in the strength of evidence” supporting individual vaccines.
Additionally, the department is asking whether the classification system allows sufficient room for “individual circumstances and values” when vaccine decisions are being made.
The renewed push from Kennedy and Trump comes against a difficult legal backdrop following a significant courtroom setback earlier in 2026.
A US judge in March blocked the government’s decision to remove routine recommendations for six vaccines from the childhood vaccination schedule, pausing the overhaul.
That ruling came after the American Academy of Pediatrics filed a lawsuit challenging Kennedy’s decision to dismiss all members of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which provides vaccine recommendations to the CDC.
A Boston judge sided with the AAP, ruling that Kennedy had acted unlawfully by removing all ACIP members and replacing them with his own appointees.
The legal battle reflects broader tensions between the current administration’s vaccine scepticism and the scientific and medical establishment’s defence of established public health protocols.