Then he wondered out loud what would happen if people stopped getting vaccinated. “If we remove the whole herd immunity, does that change, does that waver and waver turn in a different direction?” he asked.
feedback
In a statement, AMA Trustee Sandra Adamson Fryhofer weighed in on the question. “This is not a principled debate—this is a dangerous move,” he said. “Vaccines have saved millions of lives and nearly eliminated devastating diseases like polio in the United States. There is no cure for polio. When vaccination rates drop, paralysis, lifelong disability, and death return. The science is settled on this.”
Fryhofer also took aim at Milhoan’s repeated argument that the focus of vaccination policy should move from population-level health to individual autonomy. Moving away from routine vaccination, which involves discussion between physicians and patients, “does not increase freedom — it increases suffering,” he said, adding that weakening the recommendations “will cost lives.”
Overall, Milhoan’s comments further diminish the relevance of ACIP and federal vaccine policy among the medical community and states. According to the KFF policy brief, 27 states and Washington, DC, have already announced they will not follow current CDC vaccine recommendations, which Kennedy dramatically changed earlier this month without consulting ACIP. Instead, most states are relying on previous recommendations or recommendations made within states or by medical organizations.
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a 2026 update of its childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule, which it has positioned as an alternative to the CDC’s schedule and is widely adopted by pediatricians. In the announcement, the AAP noted that 12 other medical organizations have endorsed the schedule, including the AMA, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
The AAP’s updated recommendations are largely similar to last year’s schedule, but it differs significantly from the CDC’s recommendations, which “are at odds with long-standing medical evidence and no longer provide the optimal way to prevent disease in children,” the AAP said.
“AAP will continue to provide recommendations for vaccinations that are based on science and are in the best interests of the health of this country’s infants, children and teens,” AAP Chairman Andrew Racine said in the announcement.
<a href