
Noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced a key board of vaccine advisers at the CDC. After a chaotic meeting, they just handed down their first set of new recommendations.
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Noel King
During his eulogy for Charlie Kirk yesterday, President Trump said this and tomorrow we're.
William Moss
Going to have one of the biggest announcement really medically, I think in the history of our country. We're going to be doing it with Bobby and Oz and all of the professionals. I think you're going to find it to be amazing. I think we found an answer to autism. How about that? Autism tomorrow.
Noel King
An announcement is coming later today. Trump's HHS Secretary Bobby has spent years suggesting a link between vaccines and autism. Last week, RFK Jr. S hand picked panel of vaccine experts met to update US Vaccine guidance and honestly, it was not boring.
William Moss
Thank you. Sorry to prolong it. I'm going to abstain because I'm not quite sure what I'm voting for here.
Noel King
Ahead on Today explained from Vox, the new vaccine recommendations.
Eric Budman
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William Moss
Today Explained.
Noel King
I'm Noel King with Eric Budman. He's a reporter for stat, an online magazine that covers science and medicine. And Eric is here to tell us about last week's meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Eric Budman
So this is a committee that is convened by the CDC or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise American civilians on what vaccines they should get. There has been quite a bit of a shakeup this year in that the experts who were on it were all fired a few months ago and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Just replaced them all, some earlier in the summer and some just early last week. Many of the people who were on the panel were pretty much gold standard vaccine experts. And I think the general sense in the public health world is that there's a concern that some of the folks who've replaced them are noted vaccine skeptics who in some cases have expressed views that don't really jibe with the evidence.
William Moss
I hereby invite each of the nine former CDC directors to have a live public debate with me concerning vaccines.
Eric Budman
The chair, Martin Kuldorf, you know, was a famous opponent of COVID vaccine mandates. And the public health establishment was saying, this is a highly protective thing. And Martin Kaldorf was saying CDC and.
William Moss
Other agencies lied about the vaccine, and that's the reason why we now have plummeted confidence in vaccines. People will then start asking, well, if they lied about the COVID vaccine, are they lying also about the other vaccines?
Eric Budman
I think that that kind of gives you a sense of the general mood of this committee.
Noel King
All right, so with that all in mind, the panel met last week, correct?
Eric Budman
Yes.
Noel King
How did it go?
William Moss
Good morning.
Eric Budman
We're calling the meeting to order.
Noel King
Good morning, everyone.
William Moss
My name is Mina Zadeh and I'm serving as.
Eric Budman
The meeting was, by all accounts, pretty chaotic. There was some arguing and some fighting, and, you know, in one case, they voted on an issue one way.
William Moss
On Thursday, we had one vote, but this is the follow up vote for the VFC vote to make sure that everything is covered under cms, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Eric Budman
Then it became clear that members didn't fully understand the wording of what they were voting on.
William Moss
I'm going to abstain because I'm not quite sure what I'm voting for here.
Eric Budman
Then they revoted, and then that vote came out with the opposite conclusion. So that kind of gives you a sense.
William Moss
Cody and I share the same confusion. Garrett, I'm still confused. If we vote no on this. I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear appropriately. Perhaps I'm getting tired. If you had to choose between buying similar hot dogs with or without mercury for your kids, raise your hand if you would pick the mercury containing hot dogs, nobody would.
Noel King
Yeah. It gives you a sense that maybe this was not the most sort of professional performance by the new dream team.
Eric Budman
No. And I think it gives you a sense that some of the members who were only recently added to the committee may not have fully understood the procedures and practices of the committee itself.
William Moss
We are rookies, and with one exception, this was either our first ACIP meeting or our second.
Noel King
All right, so their job was to issue recommendations, and they did in fact, make some new recommendations, starting with the COVID vaccine. What did they say about that?
Eric Budman
So for the COVID vaccine, they kind of walked back or Narrowed the recommendation before this committee recommended that people get the vaccine. And now they're saying people above 6 months of age should talk with their doctors about whether it's right for them to get the vaccine. I think there's general concern among the public health world that this narrowed recommendation will cause confusion and or just increase hesitancy to actually get vaccines.
Noel King
There was also guidance on the MMRV vaccine for kids. That's measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella. I just learned this. This means chickenpox. RFK Jr has been RFK junioring about this particular vaccine for quite some time.
William Moss
Are you recommending the measles vac or not? What I've said and what I said.
Noel King
It doesn't sound like you are.
William Moss
If that's. Are you gonna let me answer? Are you gonna keep it?
Eric Budman
Are you.
William Moss
Are you not?
Noel King
What did the panel recommend here?
Eric Budman
So the panel recommended something that the CDC in some ways had already recommended, but they kind of made it more stringent in a sense. So you can get either MMR with the V separate, so that's measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella separate, or you can get them all together in one vaccine. That's the mmrv. And the committee recommended separating those, so getting those as two separate shots. And that was already something that the CDC had recommended because with whatever route you take, there's a low risk of febrile seizures, and the risk is even lower with separate doses and slightly higher with the combined dose. And so we're talking 0.04% versus 0.08%. So very small percentages. That said, with the new recommendation, low income kids will no longer have access to the combined shot and will only have access to the separated shots.
Noel King
Why? Can you explain why that matters?
Eric Budman
So I think people in general in the public health world realize that just getting people into doctor's offices can sometimes be a hurdle to getting them the protection against illnesses that they need. And so, you know, one shot versus two could make the difference between getting those vaccines and not. So that's one of the considerations here. And again, public health experts worry that this could just increase confusion and vaccine hesitancy overall.
Noel King
This panel was supposed to issue new guidance on the timing of the hepatitis B vaccine for babies. The big news late last week was that they didn't. The panel did not do that. What exactly happened here? Tell us the backstory and then walk us through where we landed.
Eric Budman
So there has been quite a lot of hubbub about the hepatitis B vaccine. Because some people have said, and this is in the eyes of many, a little bit of an oversimplification. Why do we need to give babies a vaccine for a disease that is transmitted sexually or through intravenous drug use? You get it through drug use and sexually transmitted.
William Moss
That's how you get hepatitis B. But you're telling my kid has to.
Noel King
Take it at one day old.
Eric Budman
You're not.
William Moss
That's not science.
Eric Budman
And folks in the public health world say, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is the best way to actually protect people throughout their lifetimes. Because not all mothers are tested for hepatitis B in the United States. And it's possible for mothers to transmit this disease to their babies. If you vaccinate in the first hours of the first 24 hours of life, that provides protection for those who say.
William Moss
Why should a child be vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease when they're at birth? The child passes through the birth canal.
Eric Budman
And is exposed to the same secretions.
William Moss
As one would otherwise. And that passage through the birth canal makes that child vulnerable to the virus being transmitted.
Eric Budman
There was a lot of discussion before this meeting about whether they delay that recommendation, delay the age at which that vaccine was recommended. And by the way, as Dr. Menorah.
William Moss
Says, this doesn't mandate, doesn't say you.
Eric Budman
Can'T leave the hospital unless you get it. It says that if the mother accepts.
William Moss
Then the insurance company has to pay.
Noel King
It's not mandated.
Eric Budman
And ultimately this committee decided, we don't know that that's actually going to be more protective rather than harmful. And so let's just keep the recommendation as is until we can vote at a later date.
Noel King
So the committee exhibited some restraint there.
Eric Budman
Yes, and I think people expected this to go a different way.
Noel King
Eric, how do these recommendations materially affect people as we go forward? Like, if a parent is okay with the way things used to be, can they ignore the recommendations and just do it the way they used to do it?
Eric Budman
In general, yes, there is, you know, for some subset that combined MMRV vaccine is no longer paid for, but insurance should still cover Covid vaccines for people if they decide that that's what they want. I think the. Essentially, the trust in this committee is beginning to erode among public health experts where the American Academy of Pediatrics has now broken with this committee, which is a pretty big deal. And, you know, they're recommending different things. And I think generally public health experts are wary of what this committee has to say.
Noel King
If parents can ignore the recommendations from this panel, if they can say, I like the way that it went before. I had no problems. I'm going to keep doing what I did. Why do this committee's recommendations matter so much? Do they matter a lot?
Eric Budman
So this committee's recommendations matter for a few reasons. They can influence what vaccines get paid for by insurers and I think there's a general sense that this committee is helping the nation as a whole understand what vaccines they should get. And so for trust to be eroding in this committee is essentially a kind of reversal of what's been going on since this committee was formed in the 1960s.
Noel King
That was stats Eric Budman. Coming up, we are divided over vaccines, Pediatrician and infectious disease expert on what to do about it. Support for Today Explained comes from Quince Quince wants to remind you the seasons are changing again, which means you might want to update your closet for some more weather appropriate garbs. Quince says they have all the elevated essentials for fall. 100% Mongolian cashmere starting at $50, washable silk tops and skirts that perfectly tailored denim that you do know so well. Quint says that all of their Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Here's Nisha I got two sweaters from Quint for the fall. I got the organic cotton cropped cardigan and the organic cotton boyfriend crew neck sweater. I have seen the cardigan on social media a lot and I was looking for great cardigan for the fall. I got it in a brown color and it just seems like something that will really pair well with a lot of things and work with a lot of different outfits. You can keep it classic and cozy this fall with long lasting staples from Quince. You can go to quince.com explain for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quincee.com explained. Explained to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com explained.
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Don'T want to freak yourself out, maybe don't do that.
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William Moss
Explain. My name is William Moss. I'm a pediatrician by training, specialist in infectious diseases. I'm a professor in the Department of Epidemiology here at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center.
Noel King
When and why did we first start thinking that kids should be getting vaccines on this unified schedule?
William Moss
Yeah, so there's actually a long history of guidance on immunizations here in this country and it's gotten obviously more complicated as more vaccines have been introduced. But you can trace it all the way back to the 1930s when the American Academy of Pediatrics started issuing guidance on childhood vaccines.
Noel King
It is no longer necessary to remember the doses by age, weight, et cetera. The important thing to know is how long the patient has been ill and to appreciate the severity of the disease.
William Moss
At that time, it was really just the smallpox vaccine and the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine. Then as more vaccines got added, so for example, in the mid-1950s, the inactivated polio vaccine. Make use of increasing supplies of vaccines. Help your child grow up strong and straight free from crippling polio. In the early 1960s, the measles vaccine and the oral polio vaccine. But today, Mama has learned that Johnny doesn't even have to get measles. We have a vaccine to prevent it. Isn't that nice? It was recognized that we needed really kind of think through what the appropriate schedule should be. Immunization schedule should be for children. Protect the Johnny in your life from measles. Have him immunized. And so in 1964, the advisory committee on Immunization Practices was established.
Noel King
The committee is charged with the responsibility of advising the Surgeon General regarding the most effective application in public health practice of specific preventative agents.
William Moss
So that committee has a six, 60 year history. And they kind of issued ad hoc recommendations. The American Academy of Pediatrics continued to issue their guidelines. But I would say it was in 1995 that ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, kind of got together with the American Academy of Pediatrics and issued what is really considered kind of this first unified immunization schedule for children.
Noel King
I don't know if you were around and working in the field in 1995, but I would imagine that the feeling at the time was, okay, we are now organized. We have this under control. Everybody's gonna be more or less following the same rules. Do I have that right?
William Moss
Yes, I think there was. I was in my early days of my pediatric TR in 1995, and I think there was a recognition that we needed to have this unification of the immunization schedule, or standardization may be a better word, of this immunization schedule. And it was really bringing together the key expert groups, getting them aligned. There were some differences before that, which created some confusion. So having this unified immunization schedule in the mid-1990s was a big advance.
Noel King
You've worked a lot all across the world. And so you know that these vaccine schedules differ even across developed countries. If the schedule that we have here in the US Is what is best, why do Denmark and the UK have different schedules for childhood vaccinations?
William Moss
Yeah, so the way I would think about it is that there's not one true, you know, the best immunization Schedule. These immunization schedules involve trade offs. So for example, one thing a big consideration is just the disease burden. The epidemiology of a particular disease. How big of a problem is it in a particular country? What age is most impacted by that disease? Is it multiple doses or a single dose of a vaccine? Can the vaccine doses be aligned so that you can minimize the number of healthcare visits? And then lastly, economic considerations, the cost of the vaccine, who's paying for the vaccine in that, in that setting. The UK and the United States have very different health care financing systems and so that could drive differences in decisions.
Noel King
You can see that not having one right answer, even though that is a fairly common occurrence in like human life, not having one answer, one right answer gives people pause.
William Moss
Yeah, I think I can understand that, but I don't think it should. I think people can understand that like you said, in many things in life there's not one right answer. And I think that also opens the door for some flexibility. If a parent wants to space out a vaccine, they can do that in consultation with their healthcare provider. But there are risks obviously in delaying vaccination because then their child is at risk for that disease in that longer period before they're vaccinated.
Noel King
Vaccines and the schedule on which they're administered have become really contentious. Right. And we know that there is some conversation that just isn't helpful. It only serves to confuse and cloud things. But we also know there are some well meaning parents who are very lost and very overwhelmed by the process. And one of the questions that I think you hear again and again, this is what I've been seeing in my reading is that there is concern that infants are getting too many vaccines at the same time. What is the best way for parents to think about that question?
William Moss
I'll say there are, there are a couple things kind of nested within that. One is just, you know, seeing their child get multiple injections with a needle at the same time, knowing that that causes their child discomfor. And I think that is, that is part of it. Sometimes parents are concerned and I think this is where the evidence is less supportive is, you know, that their child's being, their child's immune system is being exposed to too much at one time.
Noel King
I'm not a parent who can blindly just like walk into a doctor's office and say, yes, please give my child three shots today. So that never sat right with me. But I'm not anti vax. So instead of dumping all of that into my baby's body at 2 months old I decided to do an alternate vaccine schedule.
William Moss
I don't think there's any kind of biological or immunological kind of basis for that. Our bodies are being exposed to foreign antigens, as we call them, you know, all the time. But so I think it's very important for those of us in public health, and certainly those on the front line administering vaccines to, to listen to parents, to hear their concerns, but to also try to allay any, any kind of unfounded fears.
Noel King
There has been a drawing of sides here that seems very unfortunate to me. So, for example, if you have questions about the vaccine schedule, people will say you're a conspiracist, you're a threat to public health, you're a threat to my kids. Y' all have forgotten what it looks like to have to contend with those.
Eric Budman
Diseases, but trust y' all do not want to find.
Noel King
Go get vaccinated. Vaccinate your children. I'm asking you to do it for yourselves and for my daughters. If you feel comfortable with the existing science around vaccines, then you're participating in a broken system. You're not asking the kinds of questions you should ask on behalf of your kids.
William Moss
My big point on vaccines in general.
Eric Budman
Is why the hell is a parent a bad person to ask a question about what they're injecting into their child's arms?
William Moss
That is my choice.
Noel King
As a mother, I thought mom shaming was something of the past. I don't tell you how to raise your child. Don't tell me how to raise mine. What do you make of this divide?
William Moss
The way I kind of look at it when I put my pediatrician's hat on is that all parents want to do what's right for their child. But what I see sometimes is that the risk of the disease can be underestimated. And that's a large part due to the success of vaccines and the fact that we don't see many of these vaccine preventable diseases anymore.
Noel King
Is there any room for improvement on our childhood vaccine schedules? The design of them, the way that they're updated, the messaging around them, or is everything being done exactly right?
William Moss
Oh, I would certainly say not everything's being done exactly right, and there's always room for improvement. But what I'll emphasize is what's really important is that that process by which the immunization schedule is reviewed and updated, that's so critical to making sure that good, sound decisions are being made and to enlist and ensure the trust in those decisions.
Eric Budman
Foreign.
Noel King
William Moss of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Vaccine Access Center. Today's team Peter Balanon, Rosen, Ariana Espuru, Jolie Myers, Patrick Boyd, Adrian Lilly and Laura Bullard. Do you like a sale? If so, you should consider becoming a VOX member now. Today members get ad free versions of this show. Unlimited reading on Vox.com a member exclusive newsletter Pics of Sean's feet. That can't be right. We can't do this without members. Sign up now and you will save more than 30% off an annual membership. Go to vox.commembers to join.
William Moss
SAM.
Date: September 22, 2025
Hosts: Noel King, Eric Budman
Guests: William Moss (pediatrician and infectious disease expert; Johns Hopkins), others
This episode of Today, Explained examines the recent upheaval and controversy surrounding the U.S. vaccine advisory process, following the appointment of vaccine-skeptical members to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The episode delves into the committee’s chaotic first meeting, the changes it recommended to vaccine guidance—particularly for Covid, MMRV, and hepatitis B vaccines—and the broader implications for parents, children, and public trust in vaccines. The second half features expert analysis from Dr. William Moss, who explores the challenges of vaccine schedule design, international differences, and the social divide over vaccination in America.
Historical Standardization: U.S. immunization schedules have matured since the 1930s, seeing major standardization with the 1995 unification by ACIP and the AAP.
International Variability: Different schedules abroad (e.g., Denmark, UK) reflect differing disease prevalence, healthcare delivery models, and economic factors.
Concerns of “Too Many, Too Soon”: Dr. Moss explains that scientific evidence does not support fears that multiple vaccines overwhelm infants’ immune systems, but acknowledges the visceral discomfort and confusion for parents.
Divide and Shaming: Social polarization intensifies as parents who question schedules are sometimes shamed or labeled anti-vaxxers, even though questioning is understandable parental behavior.
The episode is informative, direct, and at times sharply critical. The hosts and guests avoid alarmism but don't hide their concern over procedural chaos and risks to public trust. There is empathy both for parents feeling overwhelmed and for frontline experts navigating a rapidly changing, politically charged environment.
This episode offers a clear, critical look at how recent politicization and leadership changes threaten the stability and trustworthiness of U.S. vaccine guidance, with potential consequences for parents, children, and public health. It also provides nuanced expert insight into why vaccine schedules exist, how they’re set, and why ongoing criticism, flexibility, and improvement are both inevitable and necessary.