This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services changed its recommended childhood vaccine schedule to model that of Denmark. The new recommendation means fewer vaccine recommendations. Health officials will continue to recommend the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and those against polio, chickenpox and HPV.
But now they are only recommending vaccinations against meningococcal disease, hepatitis B, and hepatitis A to children who broadly face a higher risk of infections. The move is not a surprise to health officials nationwide, as it was reported by CNN late last month. But it does reflect a bigger fallacy that has long surrounded the vaccine debate and been a talking point of anti-vaccine campaigns: if they do it in Europe, they can do it in the United States.
