Doctors Issue Vaccine Guidance as CDC Stays Silent

"Unfortunately today, the federal government is not fulfilling that responsibility in the way that it historically has. But the need for that work has not disappeared," said Dr. Bruce Gellin, board chair of the Vaccine Integrity Project. "We cannot allow the breakdown of the federal process to create a vacuum in evidence-based vaccine guidance."

"For decades physicians like me have relied on federal vaccine recommendations because they were based on science and careful review," said Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, the AMA's president-elect. "But with the massive changes at the federal level, trust is waning." She said the effort was organized because of "a lot of confusion and chaos regarding vaccine recommendations."

Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the groups were "speaking with one voice relative to the vaccinations" to address "the lack of trust and the lack of clarity."

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned last year as director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in protest of the agency's direction under Trump, told NPR: "The problem is that silence at this point is complicit with trying to not make sure people know about the importance of vaccines. The bottom line is that this is dangerous."

Trump and Kennedy have argued children receive too many vaccines at once and that the shots are linked to autism. Most physicians, public health authorities and infectious disease experts dispute that, saying vaccines are safe and effective. Neither HHS nor the CDC responded to NPR's request for comment on the status of federal guidance.