992 - HHS Changes Its Pediatric Vaccine Recommendations—Part 2, Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
Citing a memorandum from President Trump, health officials in the Trump Administration are ending routine recommendations for vaccinating against meningitis, hepatitis A and B, and rotavirus. Vaccine expert Ruth Karron explains why each of these vaccines is critical for safeguarding health, reducing hospitalizations, and preventing deaths. She and Dr. Josh Sharfstein recorded this episode before the recent vaccine announcement. They also discuss chickenpox and RSV, where recommendations remain in place.
*Please note that this episode was recorded prior to the announcement from HHS changing recommended vaccines for children.
Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.
Guests:
Dr. Ruth Karron is a pediatrician and a professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the director of Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
- HHS Changes Its Pediatric Vaccine Recommendations: What's Different, What Remains, and What It Means for American Health—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
-
CDC Acts on Presidential Memorandum to Update Childhood Immunization Schedule—U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
-
Hepatitis B Vaccination is an Essential Safety Net for Newborns—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
-
Two New RSV Products to Protect Infants—Public Health On Call (November 2023)
-
Vaccines 101—Public Health On Call (2025)
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.5 | Hey, listeners, this is Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer of Public Health On Call. |
| 0:35.7 | This episode is the second in a series about changing |
| 0:38.5 | childhood vaccine recommendations. Dr. Ruth Karen is a pediatrician trained in infectious |
| 0:43.7 | diseases, a global vaccine expert, and a public health professor at Johns Hopkins. She speaks to |
| 0:49.6 | Dr. Josh Sharfstein, also a pediatrician, about the threat vaccine-preventable diseases posed to |
| 0:55.1 | American children. They discuss five infections, three of which are prevented by vaccines that |
| 1:00.3 | as of yesterday, HHS no longer recommends for all children, hepatitis B, meningitis, and rotavirus. |
| 1:07.4 | Let's listen. Dr. Ruth Karen, it is great to see you this morning. So I've been reading in the paper |
| 1:14.3 | that maybe the United States will adopt a different vaccine schedule from another country. And I thought |
| 1:20.7 | that I needed to talk to someone about it. And so I decided to call you. Well, I'm really glad to |
| 1:26.2 | talk to you about this because it's something that |
| 1:29.1 | concerns me and concerns lots of people in pediatrics and public health all over the country. |
| 1:36.2 | Now, there's a special reason I wanted to call you, and I thought maybe you could first introduce |
| 1:40.5 | yourself a little bit to our audience. I'd be glad to. So I'm a pediatrician like you. |
| 1:46.9 | I'm trained in infectious diseases. And I've been working on vaccines for pretty much my whole |
| 1:54.5 | career. And I've done some work in our country on vaccines. I chaired a committee called Verpak, which is a committee that advises the FDA on vaccines. I chaired a committee called VerPAC, which is a committee that advises |
| 2:03.7 | the FDA on vaccine licensure. I was a member of ACIP, which, as I think everyone knows, |
| 2:10.2 | advises the CDC on use of vaccines, and I do some work internationally on vaccines as well. |
... |
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