Kansas won’t follow Trump admin’s scaled-back childhood vaccine schedule
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas health department rejects CDC's reduced vaccine schedule, keeps standards
- KDHE urges clinicians to follow AAP and AAFP schedules and clinical judgment
- At least 20 states oppose CDC changes amid expert criticism of scientific basis
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has no plans to adjust its immunization standards in response to the Trump administration’s new guidelines reducing the number of federally recommended childhood immunizations.
“KDHE is committed to the well-being of Kansans, and we continue to emphasize the importance of clear communication, transparency and trust in scientific evidence,” the agency said in a memo Friday.
“Vaccines remain one of the most effective tools for preventing serious infectious diseases, and decades of rigorous studies have shown they are safe and effective,” the memo continued.
Kansas is the latest in a string of at least 20 states to announce they won’t follow the new standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the guidance of health secretary and longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Missouri has made no such announcement, opting out of the new vaccine guidelines.
The CDC now says that only children with certain risk factors need to receive six standard childhood vaccines — those for rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and meningococcal disease.
In the memo, KDHE advised Kansas clinicians to “continue to rely on their clinical training and professional judgment” as well as the childhood and adolescent immunization schedules published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Both of those medical bodies still adhere to the pre-Trump vaccine standards.
Experts from around the country have cast the CDC’s new standards as scientifically dubious.
“The rationale for the recent updates to the U.S. childhood immunization schedule is, at best, uncertain and sets a potentially dangerous precedent for public health,” the American Society for Microbiology said in a statement earlier this month.
The KDHE memo emphasized that childhood immunization schedules are “intended to support, not require or mandate, evidence-informed, clinical decision-making and consistency in medical practice.”
Students across Kansas are required to receive certain immunizations before they can attend public or private school in person.
This story was originally published January 16, 2026 at 4:23 PM.
