Seven weeks before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of vaccines recommended for all children to 11 from 17, citing a new scientific assessment of immunization practices in "peer, developed countries" commissioned by President Trump, the agency updated its page on "Staying Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines."

The Trump administration did not remove or revise its predecessor's stunningly broad claim: "Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a safer, more reliable way to build protection than getting sick with COVID-19," regardless of age or health condition. 

The Nov. 19 "up to date" page linked to a "Benefits of Getting Vaccinated" page, updated four months earlier, that elaborates on the uniform threat of the virus relative to vaccines, including that COVID can kill children and saddle them with "long-term health problems" even if they have mild or no symptoms of infection.

Texas medical freedom activist and physician Mary Talley Bowden flagged the "dangerous misinformation" left intact by Trump's CDC last week. 

"Call a meeting with department heads" to audit and remove "all mention of preferring vaccination safety over natural immunity" within a week, another user responded with apparent advice for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It's just the latest example of possible distance between HHS leaders, who earlier removed COVID vaccines from the schedule for "healthy children" and emphasized Monday "the U.S. is a global outlier" with its bloated childhood vaccine schedule and agency staff who keep reaffirming Biden administration dogma.

The Jan. 2 scientific assessment by Tracy Beth Hoeg, acting director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and HHS Chief Science and Data Officer Martin Kulldorff even denounces the "de facto denial of infection acquired immunity" in earlier COVID vaccine mandates, which "lacked scientific rationale."

Their report, prepared in consultation with unnamed experts at the CDC, FDA, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, specifically singles out "false CDC claims that vaccine-acquired immunity was superior to infection-acquired immunity," undermining if not directly contradicting recently reaffirmed CDC claims.

Danish-American Hoeg has often touted Denmark's vaccination schedule as a model for the U.S., and the report repeatedly cites the Scandinavian nation as a leader in minimizing unnecessary vaccination for children, covering only 10 diseases with 30 doses. It was also the first "peer nation" to stop recommending COVID vaccines for all children, in 2022.

HHS did not respond to Just the News requests to explain why the CDC keeps portraying COVID as a bigger risk than vaccines in all circumstances, in light of its own about-face on the childhood vaccine schedule and attack on the prior administration's marginalization of natural immunity.

'I think Trump booted the doctors into action'

Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill signed the decision memorandum presented by NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. 

"The data support a more focused schedule that protects children from the most serious infectious diseases while improving clarity, adherence, and public confidence," O'Neill said. Kennedy said the month-long "exhaustive review of the evidence" will align the U.S. with "international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent."

The U.S. will now only recommend, for all children regardless of age or health, vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus and varicella, or chickenpox. 

Respiratory syncytial virus, hepatitis A and B, dengue, and meningococcal ACWY and B are going into high-risk recommendations, a fact sheet says. Immunizations "based on shared clinical decision-making" are now for COVID, rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, and hepatitis A and B.

The CDC is also halving the recommended dosage of the HPV vaccine, in line with several peers. "Recent scientific studies have shown that one dose of the HPV vaccine is as effective as two doses," the fact sheet says.

HHS said the reduction may actually reverse falling vaccination rates in the U.S., asserting that many peer nations with "fewer routine vaccines achieve strong child health outcomes and maintain high vaccination rates through public trust and education rather than mandates."

Oz emphasized all CDC-recommended vaccines, including those for high-risk groups, will remain covered by insurance "without cost sharing. No family will lose access."

"This is really a stunning development," reducing 83 total vaccine doses by about two-thirds, cardiologist Peter McCullough, chief scientific officer at The Wellness Company, told Just the News, No Noise Monday.

"I think Trump booted the doctors into action to say, 'Listen, we've got to get to a more reasonable vaccine schedule,'" followed by Kennedy and then O'Neill, "who's not a doctor," McCullough also said. 

He noted the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices wasn't consulted, though the Biden administration also sometimes bypassed or even overruled advisers for the CDC and FDA. The scientific assessment notes Hoeg is the FDA’s ex officio member to ACIP.

McCullough isn't fully mollified. The CDC continues recommending flu vaccination and "every year they seem to get it wrong," he said, referring to low efficacy due to mismatch with circulating strains, and "three-quarters of people hospitalized with influenza have taken the vaccine so it's obvious it doesn't work."