The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday, October 6, 2025, announced a major shift in vaccine policy, dropping its universal recommendation for COVID-19 boosters and advising that toddlers receive the chickenpox shot separately from the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.

The CDC press release said the changes, which follow a vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), are meant to restore “individual-based decision-making” to vaccine guidance after years of controversy over blanket recommendations.

“Informed consent is back,” said Acting CDC Director and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill, according to the CDC press release. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred healthcare providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”

The updated immunization schedules marked a departure from the agency’s prior stance that nearly all Americans six months and older should receive annual COVID-19 shots. Under the new policy, vaccination will depend on a shared clinical decision between patients and healthcare providers.

The agency claimed the risk-benefit of COVID-19 vaccination remains most favorable for those aged 65 and older or for individuals with conditions increasing the risk of severe illness. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration similarly limited marketing authorization for COVID-19 vaccines to those categories.

About 85% of U.S. adults received the original COVID-19 series launched under Operation Warp Speed, but just 23% received the most recent seasonal booster, according to the CDC. The press release acknowledged “widespread risk-benefit concerns about safety and efficacy” as the virus transitioned to endemic status.

The move on the childhood immunization schedule also reflects concerns raised by CDC safety data showing that toddlers aged 12-23 months have a higher risk of febrile seizures after receiving the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) shot compared with separate injections. The combination vaccine, the agency found, doubles the seizure risk “without conferring additional protection” against chickenpox.

An information sheet on the CDC website advises doctors that unless parents specifically request the combined MMRV shot, “CDC recommends that MMR vaccine and varicella vaccine should be administered as separate injections for the first dose in children 12-47 months of age.”

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President Donald Trump has publicly supported splitting up combination vaccines, and O’Neill reiterated that position in a post on social media platform X, calling for manufacturers to “develop safe monovalent vaccines” to replace the combined MMR.

However, the move drew criticism from major medical groups and some scientists who said it could undermine public confidence and delay protection against serious diseases. William Schaffner, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University, said splitting up long-established vaccines would increase costs and missed appointments “to no benefit.”

“It was a terrific scientific triumph to be able to put them all together,” Schaffner told The Hill, adding that no evidence supports such a policy shift.

Some public health activists, including Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, argued that the CDC’s new language on “shared decision-making” for COVID-19 shots does not go far enough. Bowden, a leading figure in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, posted that “the entire schedule should be ‘shared decision making,’” and warned against “settling” for limited reforms.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher added on X that “NONE of the vaccines recommended by the CDC for routine childhood immunization were licensed by the FDA based on long-term, placebo-controlled trials,” calling current vaccine policy “a mass experiment.”

The shift follows earlier reporting by The Dallas Express that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced pressure from MAHA activists calling for a total ban on mRNA vaccines. In June, Kennedy dismissed all members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and later replaced them with new appointees, some of whom have expressed skepticism toward past vaccination policy.

The Dallas Express previously reported that Kennedy’s HHS ended recommendations for routine mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in healthy children and pregnant women in May, a move that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) warned “can be catastrophic.”

ACOG’s press releases are frequently critical of HHS’s policy changes under Kennedy. The organization put out several statements condemning HHS’s recommendation against pregnant women taking Tylenol without disclosing that the organization receives substantial donations from organizations linked to the drug’s manufacturer, as well as at least one of the COVID shot makers, DX reported.

The latest CDC overhaul appears to build on that change but stops short of an outright reversal on mRNA vaccines. Critics within the MAHA movement, including Bowden and others, have previously accused the administration of offering “half-measures” and “linguistic misdirections” rather than policy reform.

It remains unclear how the CDC’s new approach will affect vaccine uptake or insurance coverage, though the agency said federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Vaccines for Children Program would continue to cover immunizations recommended under shared decision-making.

The ACIP’s new guidance will be incorporated into the federal immunization schedule later this week.