by
As RFK Jr.’s reconstituted panel on vaccines weighs approval of a new childhood schedule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in July that childhood vaccination rates slipped again in 2024. Neither development is good news for Black households.
Months of mixed messages from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including remarks casting doubt on routine childhood vaccines, have fueled nationwide confusion about back-to-school shots — a problem that could leave Black families disproportionately facing the fallout.
As parents and school districts scramble to interpret shifting federal guidance, experts warn that ongoing vaccine skepticism at the top of the nation’s health policy agency — coupled with a deadly measles outbreak, the worst in a quarter century — could deepen racial health disparities and put Black children at greater risk of falling further behind in their education.
RELATED: RFK Jr., Vaccine Skeptic, Ramps Up COVID Risks For Black People
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that childhood vaccine rates continue to slide, an ongoing multi-year trend that is raising concerns among public health experts. Coupled with silence from Kennedy and HHS leadership about back-to-school vaccines, experts say that slide likely will continue.
HHS Silent on Back-to-School Vaccines
“Every fall, as kids go back to school, we usually have pretty robust back-to-school [vaccine] campaigns,” Dr. Georges Benjamin, president of the American Public Health Association, tells Word In Black. “But we don’t see the usual fall back-to-school campaigns, encouraging kids to get their shots, including annual flu shots. Nothing has come out of HHS at the national level.”
Besides being more susceptible to illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu, “what often happens if they don’t have their shots, they don’t get to go to school,” Benjamin says. Given that Black children often face educational disparities, he says, “that’s a problem.”
“What often happens if [Black children] don’t have their shots is they don’t get to go to school. That’s a problem.”
Dr. Georges Benjamin, President, AMerican Public Health Association
With a new school year and flu season both fast approaching, knowing which official vaccine schedule to follow, and whom to trust, is critical for everyone in general, and the Black community in particular. That’s because Black Americans tend to have lower vaccination rates, due in part to a disproportionate lack of access to health insurance and concerns about the medical profession’s racist history.
Since taking control of HHS, however, Kennedy — a longtime, high-profile vaccine skeptic — has steered the department away from its role of delivering consistent, reliable recommendations on vaccines.
Shifting Recommendations
For example, under longtime HHS guidelines, most children older than 6 months have been eligible for a COVID-19 booster. But in May, Kennedy said the government would no longer recommend that children and healthy pregnant women get vaccinated against COVID-19.
A month later, Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, an esteemed, longstanding panel that issued guidance on vaccine schedules. Calling the old panel a “rubber stamp” for any and all vaccines, Kennedy replaced them with a hand-picked group of what he asserts are “highly credentialed physicians and scientists.”
Yet at its first meeting in late July, the new ACIP panel announced it would review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in decades. Experts warned that the decision could open the door to changes on how and when children are immunized, further adding to the confusion around childhood vaccines. And on Tuesday, HHS went even further by preventing the medical groups that advised ACIP from even doing that.
Medicaid Coverage Questions
Already, pediatricians have reported that many parents whose children are Medicaid enrollees are worried about having access to routine childhood immunizations. The government insurance program for low-income families and people with disabilities covers 40% of U.S. children, and close to half of all Black Americans are on Medicaid or other public health insurance.
Traditional Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program both need the advisory panel’s recommendation to cover vaccinations. But Benjamin says while vaccines are available now, there’s no predicting what Kennedy’s HHS may do.
“The risk, of course, is that kids who aren’t up to date on their shots — may not have the full [immunization] series yet, and can get measles, they can get COVID,” Benjamin says. He noted that outcomes for Black children who come down with COVID or the flu are disproportionately worse than for their white peers, partly because of unequal access to healthcare.
While Kennedy said parents should consult their doctors, “if a kid does not have a [healthcare] provider or has trouble getting into the doctor’s office, that conversation is not going to happen,” Benjamin says. Leadership from HHS and local authorities is essential, he says, because “lower-quality schools don’t have the preparations”
New Vaccine Schedule, Old Disparities
Issued in November 2024, the vaccination schedule included COVID-19, influenza, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), chickenpox, hepatitis A and B, pneumonia, HPV and other shots timed by age and risk level. But MMR vaccination rates for kindergarteners declined again during the most recent school year and are expected to drop again.
RELATED: Don’t Trust RFK Jr.? Here’s Where to Find Reliable Vaccine Information
During the pandemic, Black people made up roughly 20% of COVID-19 deaths, despite being just 13% of the U.S. population. Black children who became infected were twice as likely as white kids to be hospitalized and more than five times as likely to be treated in an intensive care unit.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends vaccinating children against the flu. The AAP is among the organizations suing RFK Jr. over the announced changes to vaccine schedules. The American Academy of Family Physicians has a complete list of recommended vaccines for children.
About Post Author
