My son had rotavirus before he could get the vaccine. Ending universal rotavirus vaccination is a tragedy

[lostincalifornia]

The Department of Health and Human Services has removed the rotavirus vaccine, along with five others, from the list of universally recommended childhood immunizations. This makes the U.S. an outlier. According to the International Vaccine Access Center, more than 130 countries universally recommend rotavirus vaccination. Globally, the vaccine has the potential to prevent over 100,000 deaths every year.

I am an infectious disease epidemiologist and have spent decades studying diarrheal diseases. I started my career in the U.K., pursing a Ph.D. on the viruses that cause diarrhea, including rotavirus. I know the health impact of these infections on children worldwide — and I’ve seen it up close as a parent. It turns out that knowledge is not enough to avoid these highly infections pathogens.

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So what is the government’s rationale for downgrading the recommendation for the rotavirus vaccine? To justify the new guidelines, they offered a “comprehensive scientific assessment” that cites safety concerns. Yes, safety monitoring confirmed a rare link between rotavirus vaccination and intussusception — a potentially severe obstruction in the intestine. But this finding represents a success of vaccine safety surveillance — it allowed a careful assessment of benefits versus risks, which overwhelmingly favor vaccination.

The new vaccine schedule report, authored by two newly appointed HHS officials, is the product of motivated reasoning by a tiny group. It notes that Belgium, Denmark, and Portugal don’t recommend universal rotavirus vaccination. (Actually, Belgium does.) Why not mention that nearly every other “peer nation” (Western European nations, Canada, and Australia) does recommend it?

https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/17/rotavirus-vaccine-removed-what-it-means-kids/