Australian medical experts have warned a shift in child vaccination advice in the US is not grounded in science and could undo decades of public health advances. The US president, Donald Trump, signed an unprecedented executive order calling for American children to be vaccinated against fewer diseases, suggesting a link to autism despite no evidence. The official number of recommended immunisations for children would drop to 11, compared with 18 at the end of 2024.
Six of those shots would be recommended for all children in the US, while the five others would only be recommended for high-risk children, including hepatitis B. Australia currently recommends 15 childhood vaccinations, all of which health experts say are key to protecting children’s health. Prof Julie Leask, a social scientist at the University of Sydney and an expert on social behaviours surrounding vaccination, said Trump’s decision, and his broader embrace of the US health secretary and vaccine opponent, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is a threat to vaccine uptake in Australia.
She said health professionals are already seeing the impacts of Trump’s rhetoric in Australia, with nurses saying they hear from more and more parents who have concerns about vaccination. A national survey of Australian parents released in February showed parents were less accepting of routine childhood vaccinations than they were in the previous year. Figures from the Australian immunisation register show full childhood vaccination rates peaking between 2020 and 2021.
The coverage rate for all children at five years old is now 92.6%, short of the 95% target. Lucy Clynes, the chief executive of Hepatitis Australia, is extremely concerned about the effect Trump’s policies have had on Australian vaccine confidence. The group analysed search term trends over the past 12 months and found whenever the US government makes comments undercutting the effectiveness or safety of vaccines, Australians head online in greater numbers looking to bolster those claims.
Most people who get infected will develop chronic, lifelong infection that can, after many years, damage the liver and cause diseases including liver cancer and cirrhosis. There is no cure, and more than 230,000 Australians live with chronic hepatitis B infection. Vaccination offers a high degree of protection.
Infants in Australia are recommended to get a course of four vaccines to prevent hepatitis b, including one at birth, which can prevent infection even if a mother is positive herself. Prof Ben Cowie, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, says vaccination efforts for hepatitis B have been an incredible boon for public health in Australia, saving thousands of lives. But vaccine hesitancy is rising and there is a downward trend in childhood vaccination rates, despite an inoculation like the hepatitis B jab being given to billions of people and shown to be incredible safe and effective.
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