‘Runaway Train’: Media Outlets Race to Condemn Unconfirmed Report of Changes to Childhood Vaccine Schedule

The panic tells you everything you need to know.

This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

After HHS postponed a joint press conference with the CDC, CNN ran with a story claiming a source “familiar with the plan” told the media outlet that HHS planned to announce that it was going to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, to bring it more in line with Denmark’s schedule. HHS did not confirm CNN’s report.

Late last week, mainstream media began reporting that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is planning to overhaul the childhood vaccination schedule by shifting to Denmark’s schedule.

The reports stemmed from a Dec. 18 invitation HHS sent to media, including The Defender, for a Dec. 19 joint press conference with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HHS said it planned to make an official announcement about “children’s health.”

Later that evening, HHS sent a follow-up notice, postponing the press conference and announcement until January 2026. However, CNN published a story the same evening, even though HHS canceled the announcement.

Citing “a person familiar with the plans,” CNN reported that HHS was “planning to overhaul the schedule of recommended vaccines for children” in the U.S.

According to CNN:

“The expectation is that the US schedule will be close to, if not identical to, recommendations in Denmark, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the matter.”

The Washington Post and other legacy media followed with similar stories.

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An HHS spokesperson declined to comment for the CNN story and referred questions to the agency’s earlier statement that it had postponed a “children’s health announcement” until next year.

When The Defender asked HHS if it could confirm CNN’s report, HHS Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard said, “Unless you hear it from HHS directly, this is pure speculation.”

“Mainstream media has been a runaway train,” said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland. She called the media speculation “irresponsible.”

Holland called out states that are announcing plans to disregard changing CDC vaccine recommendations, and writing new state laws to address vaccine mandates and vaccine injury liability issues.

“Government and media have long suppressed information on vaccine harms,” Holland said. “That is now going to change radically as the accountability issue moves front-and-center. It is long overdue that families with their healthcare practitioners make individualized vaccine decisions and that healthcare workers and the industry are held accountable for foreseeable harms.”

Plan would reduce number of shots given to U.S. kids, critics up in arms

CNN, which is credited with first reporting on HHS’ plans, said the proposed new vaccine schedule would have fewer shots than the CDC’s current immunization schedule, bringing the U.S. in line with what’s recommended in other developed countries.

Denmark’s childhood vaccination schedule omits several shots currently on the U.S. schedule, including vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A, meningococcal, flu and chickenpox.

Other media outlets, including The New York Times and the Post, repeated CNN’s claim and featured commentary from vaccine supporters who criticized the unconfirmed HHS plan.

Medpage Today ran its report under the headline, “‘A Disgrace’: Feds to Slash the Number of Recommended Vaccines, Reports Say.”

The Times quoted Anders Hviid, a professor and department head of epidemiology at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark and lead author of a recent study on aluminum in vaccines, as saying that the U.S. was getting “crazier and crazier in public health.”

CNN asked Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, what he thought of the U.S. switching to Denmark’s vaccine schedule. “Why would we ever want to emulate that?” Offit said.

Offit, who in September was dismissed from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s key vaccine panel, was recently accused of lying to CNN about not being invited to speak at the last meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisers.

According to Offit, Denmark’s choice to have fewer vaccines on its childhood vaccine schedule was a “financial” decision. “They decided to allow that degree of suffering and hospitalization. They didn’t want to spend that much money per hospitalization prevented.”

“I doubt Denmark would agree with Dr. Offit’s statement,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., CHD’s senior research scientist. Jablonowski pointed out that Offit is a co-inventor — “and profiteer” — of the rotavirus vaccine, which Denmark does not recommend.

What we know so far about the postponed HHS announcement

President Donald Trump on Dec. 5 signed a presidential memorandum to launch the process of aligning U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations with best practices from peer countries.

“I am fully confident Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the CDC, will get this done, quickly and correctly, for our Nation’s Children,” Trump wrote in an X post.

Although HHS still has not disclosed the nature of the “children’s health announcement” it planned to make on Dec. 19, the agency did publicize the list of people who were scheduled to speak at the press conference.

In addition to U.S. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., planned speakers included HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, and Acting Director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Tracy Beth Høeg.

Høeg, a researcher, epidemiologist and regulatory policy expert, presented earlier this month at a meeting of the CDC vaccine panel on the differences between the U.S. and Danish schedules.

Høeg, a dual citizen of Denmark and the U.S., showed a slide during the meeting, depicting how the U.S. recommends far more shots than several peer nations, including Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. She also noted that European countries give more combination vaccines.

Høeg noted that Danish vaccine regulators have been very selective in choosing which vaccines to add to the country’s schedule, which she argued has helped maintain the public’s trust.

That’s in contrast to the U.S., where regulators have added many shots to the schedule in recent years. That has possibly undermined U.S. parents’ trust in the U.S. vaccination system, she said.

According to Høeg, vaccination policy is “not a politicized discussion” in Denmark. But in the U.S., many people are either focused on deaths due to vaccine-preventable illnesses or deaths due to injuries from vaccines, she said.

“We need to avoid political polarization. … We should all be united in trying to make the best recommendations that we can for our children.”

Related articles in The Defender

• CDC Vaccine Panel Votes to End Universal Hep B Vaccine for Newborns

• Sparks Fly as ACIP Members Debate Hep B Vaccine for Newborns, Delay Vote Again

• CDC Updates Childhood Schedule With New COVID Vaccine Recommendation for Kids, But Advice for Pregnant Women Still Unchanged

• Scientists Call for Global Moratorium on mRNA Vaccines, Immediate Removal From Childhood Schedule

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