‘Red-State, Blue-State Divide’ Feared After CDC Changes Childhood Vax Schedule
Federal health officials’ sweeping decision Monday to overhaul the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule, significantly reducing the number of shots routinely recommended for all kids, is likely to deepen state divides over immunization mandates and further confuse parents, experts say.
It is up to individual states to determine if they want to adopt the newly announced Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations that now advise universal vaccination against 11 diseases — down from 17.
The new guidelines will lead to “more splintering of vaccine policies” and a patchwork system, warned vaccine law expert Richard Hughes, who also predicted legal challenges to the way the change was implemented.
Northe Saunders, president of the pro-vaccine advocacy organization American Families for Vaccines, said “there’s going to be a red-state, blue-state divide where blue states look to the science, and red states look to the ill-conceived recommendations of the federal government.”