{"id":14922,"date":"2026-08-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=14922"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:00:00","slug":"pediatricians-and-health-departments-sidestep-trumps-cdc-on-vaccine-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=14922","title":{"rendered":"Pediatricians and Health Departments Sidestep Trump\u2019s CDC on Vaccine Guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMHERST, Mass. \u2014 For the last 30 years, whenever pediatrician John Snyder<\/a> wanted to find the most up-to-date research on treating young patients, he would turn to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

If he wanted to learn more about an outbreak of measles or hantavirus, he would pore over the weekly CDC report that came by email. If a patient\u2019s family was traveling to Africa or Asia, he would check the latest CDC vaccine recommendations for overseas travel. And if a family was worried about potential side effects from a shot, he could always send them to the CDC\u2019s website to bolster his argument to get the immunization.<\/p>\n

Public trust in the CDC has hit bumps<\/a> in the road during infectious disease outbreaks<\/a>, but for medical professionals, Snyder said, \u201cthe CDC used to be, worldwide, the most trusted source of information pertaining to public health and infectious disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet even doctors began losing trust, Snyder said, after Donald Trump was elected president again. Trump quickly tapped longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.<\/p>\n

Within months of his confirmation as secretary, Kennedy had dismissed every member<\/a> of the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory board and replaced them with new appointees<\/a>, some of them prominent vaccine skeptics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned into a completely unreputable source of information,\u201d Snyder said.<\/p>\n

This rupture of scientific trust in the CDC has put many pediatricians like Snyder in a bind, as they no longer turn to the country\u2019s preeminent public health agency and instead search for ways to fill the information gap. Some doctors are launching their own vaccine education efforts, sometimes in collaboration with local public health departments.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 5, the CDC removed some vaccines<\/a> from the recommended vaccine schedule<\/a> for all children \u2014 against the advice of major medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a>. The number of recommended vaccines shrank<\/a> as the agency dropped rotavirus, covid-19, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and meningococcal disease from the list. The agency did not respond to a request for comment for this article.<\/p>\n

In March, after medical groups sued<\/a>, a federal judge ordered the Trump a<\/a>dministration<\/a> to revert to the previous guidelines. The administration has appealed<\/a> the judge\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The storeroom of childhood vaccines at Amherst Pediatrics. (Karen Brown\/New England Public Media)<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth \u201ccreates a whole bunch of confusion in the public,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very confusing even for healthcare providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s trying to be clear to patients about what the evidence shows, even if that means going against the federal government. His practice, Amherst Pediatrics, changed its website<\/a> to say: \u201cThe CDC is no longer considered to be a reliable or legitimate source of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shocking that we have to say that,\u201d Snyder said. Instead, the site directs families to get information from their own doctor, the state of Massachusetts, or nongovernmental medical organizations including the AAP.<\/p>\n

In the exam room, Snyder is having more tense conversations with families. He said some parents are explicit that they want to hew to what the CDC recommends. \u201cEven if they don\u2019t say that, we have definitely seen increasing hesitancy and questions,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of that interferes with us protecting children.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a spring afternoon, several of Snyder\u2019s young patients came into Amherst Pediatrics for routine visits.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s talk about vaccines,\u201d Snyder said to one mother, Tenzin Dekey, who was there with her 1-year-old. Snyder explained that her son was due for the MMR vaccine<\/a>, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, in addition to the chickenpox, hepatitis A, and flu vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s four shots, two in each leg,\u201d he said, as he handed Dekey CDC information sheets about the vaccines. She glanced at them and agreed to the shots.<\/p>\n

Pediatrician John Snyder gives vaccine information to Tenzin Dekey, who had brought her 1-year-old son to Amherst Pediatrics for an annual exam. She accepted the vaccines Snyder recommended. (Karen Brown\/New England Public Media)<\/p>\n

Ironically, the information sheets are stamped with the CDC\u2019s logo \u2014 as required by law<\/a> \u2014 even though Amherst Pediatrics has explicitly directed patients away from the CDC. Snyder said he hates that disconnect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a source of heated discussion,\u201d he said. \u201cHow can we be saying, \u2018Do not trust the CDC when it comes to vaccines,\u2019 yet here is the information we\u2019re giving our own patients when they\u2019re in the office about vaccines?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another mother brought her 14-year-old son for his annual physical. She asked to be identified by only her first name, Melissa, so she could freely discuss her family\u2019s private health issues.<\/p>\n

Snyder recommended the HPV vaccine<\/a>, which helps prevent some cancers<\/a>. Although Melissa had refused the HPV vaccine in a previous visit, this time she left the decision up to her son. He agreed to it. But for other vaccines, she wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a hard \u2018no\u2019 on the covid,\u201d she told Snyder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could talk about that if you want,\u201d he suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need to talk about it,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

After the appointment, Melissa said she just doesn\u2019t know whom to trust anymore when it comes to vaccine safety. She used to get information from the CDC but no longer does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry that it\u2019s been politicized a lot, and I don\u2019t like politics,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I prefer to hear things from people, healthcare professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such distrust and confusion inspired Snyder to join an independent vaccine information campaign, along with other pediatric practices and health departments in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

The campaign\u2019s website, which is promoted in Snyder\u2019s waiting room, is called Valley Vax<\/a>. It sidesteps the CDC and highlights advice from local doctors and national medical groups, including the AAP<\/a>. Valley Vax bought ads on the sides of buses in Western Massachusetts to promote the site, with the faces and testimonials of local doctors including Snyder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted something that felt familiar and appealing and that they might be more likely to trust,\u201d said Kiko Malin<\/a>, director of Amherst\u2019s public health department, who coordinates the Valley Vax effort.<\/p>\n

The independent health website Valley Vax is advertised on the sides of buses in Western Massachusetts. (Kiko Malin)<\/p>\n

She said the organizers decided not to criticize the CDC outright.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome information from the CDC is reasonable. Like they are doing a good job of tracking influenza-like illness rates in the country,\u201d Malin said. \u201cIt\u2019s important not to discount an organization completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she said it\u2019s the first time she\u2019s had to contradict health information from the CDC. \u201cThat\u2019s not a comfortable place to be in at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other health leaders are also banding together to get out evidence-based information. At the state level, California, Hawai\u2018i, Oregon, and Washington \u2014 frustrated with the CDC \u2014 operate the West Coast Health Alliance<\/a> to \u201censure the public has access to credible information.\u201d And governors of 14 states and Guam set up the Governors Public Health Alliance<\/a> in response to declining trust in federal health agencies.<\/p>\n

Locally, some public health departments are partnering with community leaders to reach people who have stopped listening to government institutions but \u201cdo have strong connections within their faith community or do have strong connections within their neighborhood,\u201d said Adriane Casalotti<\/a>, a spokesperson for the National Association of County and City Health Officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like Amherst, many local health departments now direct people to professional medical organizations instead of the CDC, Casalotti said, because advice from those groups may change slightly as the science evolves, but it\u2019s unlikely to change with each lawsuit against the government.<\/p>\n

This article is from a partnership that includes New England Public Media<\/a>, NPR<\/a>, and KFF Health News.<\/em><\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMHERST, Mass. \u2014 For the last 30 years, whenever pediatrician John Snyder wanted to find the most up-to-date research on treating young patients, he would turn to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If he wanted to learn more about an outbreak of measles or hantavirus, he would pore over the weekly CDC report…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}