How state's policies for vaccines affect kids
By: Scott Fallon
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... New Jersey is breaking away form the federal Center of Disease Control and Prevention's pared-down vaccine recommendations for children and will instead join a collection of nearby states to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' childhood vaccine schedule, officials announced on Monday January 12. [2026]
..... The statement by the recently formed Northeast Public Health Collaborative comes a week after the CDC - under Helaht Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine critic - said it would reduce the number of diseases recommended for vaccination to 11 from 17.
..... Jeffrey Brown New Jersey's acting helaht commissioner, said the CDC's recommendations are dangerous.
..... Under the new guidelines, vaccination for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, COVID-19, and hepatitis A and B are now being recommended only for high-risk groups, or are being left to "shared-decision-making" between parents and physicians, under the changes, which took effect immediately.
..... The CDC is offering "diverted evidence-based medical recommendations toward cherry-picked pseudoscience that creates confusion and puts everyday people, especially our most vulnerable, at risk," Brown said at a news conference Monday [01/12/2026] at Hackensack University Medical Center to promote flu shots.
..... The CDC merely makes vaccine recommendations, and states develop requirements often tied to school attendance, or laws required health care workers to be vaccinated.
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The move by the Northeast coalition - public health agencies from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island - will largely keep the vaccine schedule the same in New Jersey.
..... It will also keep the requirements for day care, preschool and K-12 schools intact, and that is where the conflict with the CDC exists.
..... For instance, annual vaccinations for influenza are no longer recommended for all children by the CDC. But they are still required for New Jersey day care and preschools under state regulations.
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At a news conference organized by U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer on Monday [01/12/2026] in Hackensack, doctors said the anti-vaccine movement promoted by Kennedy has prompted them to speak out more "to cut through the noise."
..... "We must be trusted messengers who reaffirm that the science is clear: Vaccination are a safe, proven and essential tool to protect our children and our communities," said Dr. Joseph Underwood, chief medical officer at Hackensack.
..... The CDC said two top officials reviewed vaccine protocols in 20 other developed countries and made the recommendations to change the U.S. schedule to reflect vaccine policies in countries like Denmark, agency officials said last week. [01/09/2026]
Fight Flu Act
..... The Northeast coalition said in a statement Monday [01/12/2026] that the changes did not follow established procedures for vaccine recommendations "based on rigorous, expert-driven risk-benefit analysis of new data."
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Gottheimer said he would introduce legislation called the Fight Flu Act to free up some federal funds to pay for mobile flu vaccine clinics to "bring health care to people."
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New Jersey is in the middle of one of the worst flu seasons in recent years. A 2-year-old boy in Morris County died from the flu this month [01/2026] the first child in New Jersey to succumb to influenza this season.
..... "People need to know the dangers and not buy into some social media disinformation campaigns discouraging families from getting a flu shot - or other critical vaccinates like the measles or COVID-19," Gottheimer said.