At pediatric clinics across the country, the conversation about childhood vaccines has shifted dramatically. Dr. Rana Alissa, a Jacksonville, Florida pediatrician and president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, used to hear skepticism about vaccines only occasionally. Now, she says, it’s a daily refrain. "It’s better for my kid to get the virus than get the vaccine," some parents tell her. Others suspect financial motives, or simply refuse: "I did not vaccinate any of my kids, and I’m not going to vaccinate this one. So, please, don’t waste your time."
This spike in hesitancy isn’t limited to Florida. In western Massachusetts, local and state health officials are sounding the alarm as vaccination rates among children drop to concerning levels, especially in Franklin and Berkshire counties, where more than 10% and 9% of kindergartners, respectively, enter school without the recommended series of vaccines, according to the Department of Public Health. Hampden County isn’t far behind at 6%. While the state’s overall rate remains above 95%, these local gaps threaten herd immunity for diseases like measles and polio—diseases that many thought were relics of a bygone era.
What’s driving this change? According to medical experts and public health officials, a potent mix of pandemic-fueled doubt, misinformation from the highest levels of government, and policy shifts at federal agencies have all played a role. Dr. Alissa and others say that confusion, amplified by conflicting or unreliable sources, is making it harder for parents to make informed choices. "[Parents] come to our clinic and the hospitals and they say, ‘We looked it up, and we just don’t want it,’" Alissa explained. "There’s different kinds of reasoning: the ingredients of the vaccine, the side effects of the vaccine, ‘vaccines don’t work.’"
The turmoil reached a new peak on August 28, 2025, when three top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) resigned in protest. The officials, including Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, were escorted out of the Atlanta headquarters. Their resignations were a direct response to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to dismiss CDC Director Susan Monarez over her opposition to Kennedy’s vaccine policies. Daskalakis posted on X, "the intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines will cause the nation to suffer."
This leadership shakeup followed a series of controversial moves by Kennedy. In June, he ousted all 17 members of the CDC vaccine advisory committee, replacing them with some vaccine skeptics. In May, he rescinded recommendations for children to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Experts warn that these actions, coupled with Kennedy’s public promotion of discredited theories about disease transmission, are likely to worsen vaccination rates and set the stage for more outbreaks.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added fuel to the fire in late August by restricting access to updated COVID-19 vaccines. Now, only people 65 and older and those at high risk for severe illness can get the shots without extra steps. For healthy children under 18, parents must consult a medical provider before vaccination—gone are the days of simply visiting a pharmacy or clinic. The American Academy of Pediatrics called these new rules "deeply troubling."
These federal changes have real consequences in the states. Nationwide, nonmedical exemptions among kindergarteners have climbed from 1.9% in 2020 to 3.4% in the 2024-25 school year, with 17 states reporting rates over 5%, according to CDC data. In Florida, the rate rose from 2.7% in 2020-21 to 4.8% in the current school year. Five states—California, Connecticut, Maine, New York, and West Virginia—don’t allow nonmedical exemptions. But in January, West Virginia’s governor issued an executive order mandating religious exemptions, sparking lawsuits from families with immunocompromised children. Kennedy has publicly defended these exemptions and warned state health departments of potential civil rights violations if they don’t comply.
Massachusetts has not been immune to these trends. Regional epidemiologist Jack Sullivan described "astronomical" gaps in vaccination at some Greenfield schools. He attributes the rise in hesitancy both to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and to national rhetoric, including Kennedy’s vocal opposition to vaccines. "There’s now a rationalization for people to take a second look at [not getting the vaccine] that may have been on the line about it before," Sullivan told 88.5 NEPM. "It’s having an effect."
Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein expressed particular concern about Berkshire County, which sees many out-of-state visitors. "Low levels of vaccination in Berkshire County put the community at risk that someone might come in with measles, with chickenpox, with another communicable disease," he said, "and the low levels [of vaccination] won’t protect everyone."
Recent outbreaks underscore these fears. In Texas, a measles outbreak was declared over only after six weeks with no new cases, while New Mexico continues to see fresh infections. CDC data shows that between September 2023 and August 2024, 152 children died of COVID-19 and 213 died of the flu. Preliminary CDC data from April 2025 showed more than 9,000 cases of whooping cough—about double the number from the same period last year. Whooping cough, or pertussis, can be deadly for babies, and vaccines are a key preventive measure.
Experts like Dr. Jesse Hackell, chair of the Committee on Pediatric Workforce at the American Academy of Pediatrics, recall an era before widespread vaccination when children routinely suffered—and sometimes died—from preventable diseases. "When I trained, we didn’t have these vaccines, and these kids kept us up at night," Hackell told Stateline. "I never want to practice in those days. I never want to go back to that. … To me, that is unacceptable to submit my patients to those risks that we’ve been able to reduce."
But access is becoming more complicated. This week, the FDA removed one COVID-19 vaccine for young children, restricting Moderna’s Spikevax to only those with serious health issues, and ending Pfizer’s authorization for children under five. The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months, especially those with underlying health conditions, and says healthy children whose parents want the shot should be able to get it. Hackell warns that new restrictions disproportionately affect vulnerable children, especially those covered by the federal Vaccines for Children Program, which follows federal recommendations. "If you’re covered by VFC, which is basically kids on Medicaid and a few other populations, then you’re out of luck," he said. "To me, that’s a huge inequity in access to care, which is indefensible."
State officials are pushing back. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy has proposed legislation to strengthen the Department of Public Health’s authority over which vaccines insurance must cover. In a statement, she pledged, "If President Trump and Secretary Kennedy won’t protect people’s health — we will." Goldstein, the state’s public health commissioner, added that Massachusetts will base its vaccine advice on respected national medical organizations, not the CDC, which he described as dangerously politicized.
As the CDC faces internal chaos and a loss of surveillance capacity, experts warn that the normalization of outbreaks may become the new reality. "We need to make sure that kids are protected against the diseases that they can be protected against, because we truly are in a vulnerable state right now," said Rekha Lakshmanan of The Immunization Partnership. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, echoed the concern: "It’s the most vulnerable among us that will suffer, and that will be our children."
With federal funding for childhood vaccination programs under threat and vaccine hesitancy on the rise, the stakes have rarely felt higher for public health officials, parents, and children alike. The choices made in the coming months, both at the policy table and in exam rooms across America, will shape the nation’s health for years to come.
