Tennessee families react as CDC slashes childhood vaccine requirements
Poll: 90% of Tennessee parents support vaccine access amid CDC rollback
AI Generated Transcript from News Channel 5 on-air reporting
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scaling back childhood vaccination recommendations, reducing required vaccinations from 17 diseases to 11 in a move that could affect families, schools, and healthcare providers across the country.
The changes mean vaccines previously recommended for all children, including hepatitis B shots given to newborns for decades, are now only recommended for high-risk children. The same applies to RSV vaccines.
Under the new recommendations, the CDC will organize the childhood immunization schedule into three distinct categories, all of which require insurance companies to cover them without cost-sharing: immunizations recommended for all children, immunizations recommended for certain high-risk groups or populations, and immunizations based on shared clinical decision-making.
"I just don't understand why we wouldn't want to keep ourselves and our children healthy in any way we can," said Dana Johnson, a mother of three.
Johnson expressed concern about the potential health implications of the reduced recommendations. Her children are four, two, and three months old.
"I guess my biggest concern is we're always sick already, and if half the population is also not vaccinated, there's going to be even more [sickness]," Johnson said.
The CDC argues the United States has long recommended more childhood vaccine doses than most peer nations, and more than twice as many as some European countries. However, those countries typically offer much longer parental leave periods.
"Their babies have a year to be in the cocoon of their home, and that would change a lot, and we don't have that in the United States," Johnson said. "We are pushed out of the homes and into daycare and school immediately, and we need to be protected to be healthy."
Despite the CDC's rollback, new polling by Tennessee Families for Vaccines reveals strong public support for vaccine access and requirements. Ninety percent of people polled said they support policies that make vaccines easy to get and fully covered by insurance, while 83% support efforts to expand access so children can meet school vaccine requirements.
The polling also shows nearly two-thirds of respondents oppose eliminating school vaccine requirements, with more than half strongly opposed.
The CDC says it will monitor how these changes affect infectious disease rates. While the immunization schedule serves as a guide rather than a mandate, it often determines what insurance covers and what children need for daycare and public school enrollment.
