“We started out 2025 with an environment that was rife with myths and disinformation," said Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., MD, in this year-end recap of 2025 and the pediatric vaccine landscape.
This year in pediatric medicine, vaccines have been the headline.
“We started out 2025 with an environment that was rife with myths and disinformation, and we’ve seen some of that institutionalized through some of the changes in leadership in [the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)],” said Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., MD, medical director, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “We’ve seen basically the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ACIP, that all of us know and have used as a prime reference for decades, taken apart and moved to a way of making recommendations that no longer follow the science.
“The biggest challenge is all of the vaccine hesitancy, and that has skyrocketed,” added Tina Q. Tan, MD, FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS. Tan is the immediate past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), an attending in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and the editor-in-chief of Contemporary Pediatrics.
“People are having major issues speaking to their patients about getting vaccines. The other thing is all the misinformation coming out of the ACIP now is causing mass confusion,” added Tan.
As 2026 approaches, experts are advising families to look to other long-standing and reputable medical societies for accurate, science-based recommendations.
“Parents look to their pediatrician for best information, and typically the pediatrician would look at the advice from the ACIP and the CDC, but they are not anymore, because I think the ACIP and the CDC are no longer a trusted source of information,” said Paul A. Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center and attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
“The good news is a lot of people have stood up,” said Offit. “The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has stood up and made it very clear that young children who’ve never been vaccinated should get vaccinated. They provide good information, and I think the physician is the key here.”
“First and foremost, the thing that gets me up every day—and I think most of my colleagues that are in practice—is the relationships that we have with patients and families,” added Hopkins. “We have the joy of seeing these children from early in life, seeing them grow, seeing them develop, helping their families understand what we can do to best protect those children from preventable disease.”
Hopkins added the importance of explanation and understanding that parents are navigating media headlines, updated recommendations, and social media.
“It is critical that we continue to provide presumptive recommendations—meaning ‘I recommend this vaccine.’ But we also need to be aware that parents have questions,” Hopkins continued. “We need to respectfully address those questions. We need to let them know where the science stands. We need to have conversations that lead them to the correct decision: to get their children vaccinated.”
Communication is also ever-evolving, making it all the more important for providers to understand how trust has changed in recent years.
“In the old world, trust was really granted by credentials,” added Lori Handy, MD, MSCE, associate director, Vaccine Education Center, CHOP. “What we’re realizing now is that trust is a lot more complicated. It means engaging with humans, with their feelings and emotions, and doing that over time.”
Above all, as providers continue to navigate changes to the pediatric vaccine schedule and misinformation, experts implore them to continue being the voice for vaccines.
“We need to be strong advocates,” said Tan. “You have to do what’s best for your patient, so please rely on scientifically sound evidence.”
“Yes, take heart,” Offit stressed. “A lot of people are standing up. A lot of scientific and medical societies are standing up. So take heart. People are standing up in this troubled time.”
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