Doctors fear CDC vaccine recommendation changes will fuel vaccine hesitancy in Canada

TORONTO – Sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule in the U.S. are concerning doctors who say Canadian parents might get the false impression that it’s unsafe to immunize their children. 

Ontario Medical Association President Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman says she is most worried about the confusion that parents may feel when they see that the U.S. and Canada have different immunization recommendations for kids.

She says that can drive misinformation, causing a rise of serious illnesses that are preventable. 

“From a Canadian perspective, it’s a cautionary tale for us,” Abdurrahman said, speaking about the resurgence of preventable diseases that can happen after even a small drop in immunization levels, as seen with measles outbreaks over the past year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its routine vaccine schedule on Monday, reducing the number of recommended shots.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says those changes do not affect vaccine decision-making in Canada, which is informed by rigorous reviews of all available evidence.

Several vaccines that prevent illnesses such as rotavirus and meningococcal disease are no longer recommended for all children by the CDC. Neither are the flu and RSV shots. 

Instead, they’re either recommended for “certain high-risk groups” or “based on shared clinical decision-making.”

Abdurrahman said Canada’s vaccine schedule remains based in science, and unless there is a change in evidence, the schedule will stay the same. 

Each routine vaccine is there for a reason, she says, selected specifically for the population it serves. Its absence would play a big role in the resurgence of disease, which could limit health care capacity. 

Echoing that sentiment, Dr. Joan Robinson, a pediatric infectious diseases physician in Edmonton speaking on behalf of the Canadian Paediatric Society, says Canada’s schedule is based on the highest quality of evidence available and none of the decisions are tied to political ideas or anecdotal reports. 

Maxwell Smith, a bioethicist and associate professor at Western University, says at first glance, the CDC’s decision to only recommend some vaccines to high-risk groups appears reasonable, but he says if the rest of the population is unimmunized, pathogens will spread and put vulnerable individuals at greater risk.  

“It simply wouldn’t be circulating had we had more vaccination in the population,” Smith said. 

For example, one of the vaccines that is included in the changes prevents meningitis, inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Immunologist Dawn Bowdish says a healthy child can suddenly die within a short period of time.

“For many children, there’s no way you can intervene medically fast enough to save them, so to pull that off the recommended list is an absolute mystery to me,” she said. 

Bowdish says any seeds of doubt among parents in the U.S. tend to spread into Canada.

She says her message to parents is that information coming out of the United States is no longer reliable.

“It pains me to say that, because historically the CDC was a world leader that the entire world could turn to for good information.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2026.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.