By Gerry Smith, Michelle Amponsah, Bloomberg News

After Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became the nation’s top health official in February, pediatrician Jeff Couchman started getting a lot of questions from worried parents.

“They’d ask: ‘Are vaccines going to be available? Can we give my kid every possible shot today just to make sure?’” said Couchman, who practices at Mesquite Pediatrics in Tucson, Arizona.

So, for the first time, Couchman and his colleagues have started offering vaccines on an accelerated schedule. They’re giving a second dose of the MMR vaccine to prevent measles, mumps and rubella as early as 15 months of age, though it’s not typically recommended until age 4. And they’re offering shots to prevent HPV, a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer, starting at age 9, two years earlier than the government suggests.

There are risks to giving shots too early. Government vaccine advisers developed the schedule for childhood shots by looking at the results of clinical studies and scrutinizing how the human immune system changes from infancy to adulthood, among other factors. For some vaccines, like the ones Couchman is doling out ahead of schedule, doctors know adjusting the timing by a few months or even years makes little difference. But for others, deviating from the schedule means the shot won’t be fully effective, or could pose other problems that haven’t yet been discovered.

Pediatricians across the U.S. interviewed by Bloomberg said they’re now working with parents to carefully weigh those risks against the threat posed by Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy’s leadership. Their key concern is that after Kennedy fired some of the government’s top vaccine experts and appointed replacements who have promoted dubious theories about the safety and efficacy of shots, the U.S. may ultimately stop calling for their use. That could lead to higher costs for patients or shortages.

“I’m worried that any moment now vaccines will not be recommended anymore,” said Eli Fels-McDowell in Lexington, Kentucky, who recently got her daughter a second dose of the MMR vaccine earlier than usual, at age 3, and a COVID vaccine after Kennedy said it was no longer recommended for healthy kids. “We’re trying to limbo under the bar really quickly.”

It’s hard to get precise numbers on how many vaccines are given early. It’s not tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or by several state health departments contacted by Bloomberg News. But interviews with pediatricians and parents across the country reveal an emerging trend: a surge of requests for childhood vaccines before they are typically given, citing Kennedy as a reason why.

On a weekend in March, Mesquite held a special clinic for parents who wanted earlier vaccines for their kids. About 45 families showed up, a significant number for a relatively small pediatrician, Couchman said. Overall, his practice has given early second doses of the measles vaccine to about 227 children between 1 and 4, or about 70% of patients in that age range.

In Marin County, just north of San Francisco, pediatrician Nelson Branco said about 20% of families that he sees are requesting an early dose of MMR vaccine. In Charleston, South Carolina, pediatrician Eliza Varadi has seen a rise of requests from parents to give the HPV vaccine to their 7- and 8-year-olds because they’re worried it will no longer be approved or covered by insurance — something she’d never seen before February. And in Florida, pediatricians have been getting parental requests for early shots “more and more,” said Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Parents are coming in confused about so many things,” Alissa said. “They are mentioning RFK by name.”

Last month, an influential seven-person vaccine advisory panel handpicked by Kennedy said it would form a committee to review childhood vaccines. If the group reverses course and opts to no longer back the well-established childhood shot schedule, it will affect access to those vaccines.

The panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, helps guide which shots insurance companies fully cover and whether manufacturers are shielded from legal liability over side effects. It also helps determine whether vaccines are available for free through the Vaccines for Children program, a taxpayer-backed initiative to ensure every child has access to lifesaving shots. About half of U.S. kids are eligible for the program.

There are reasons to believe Kennedy’s panel will stray from medical precedent. The panel also voted last month against recommending flu shots with a preservative long considered by scientists to be safe, but falsely believed by so-called anti-vaxxers to cause autism. Kennedy has also suggested kids now get too many shots and raised doubts about their safety, falsely claiming the measles vaccines causes deaths each year.

The committee’s moves were a clear sign that some childhood vaccines are in jeopardy, said Sean O’Leary, chair of the infectious disease committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Based on what we saw, it’s absolutely well-founded for parents to worry that vaccines will get taken away,” he said.

Giving a vaccine early can still fall within government guidelines. The CDC recommends a child get the second MMR vaccine dose between age 4 and 6, but says it can be sooner if it’s at least 28 days after the first. While the HPV vaccine series is recommended at 11 or 12, the CDC says it can be started at age 9.

Still, deviating too far from the schedule can make pediatricians uncomfortable. In some cases, giving a shot well before the recommended age poses unknown risks.

“When you deviate from that schedule, then you’re kind of in unstudied territory,” said Branco, the Marin County pediatrician.

There are potential downsides to giving children shots too soon. Researchers have found infants are born with maternal antibodies that may prevent the measles vaccine from working long-term if they get it before they turn 1. A first measles vaccine dose before that age should only be done in special circumstances, like before traveling to a place with an outbreak, and shouldn’t count toward the normal two-dose schedule, pediatricians say.

In such cases, parents would be giving a child an extra dose of a vaccine that has potential rare side effects like allergic reaction, febrile seizure and a blood-clotting issue that can cause bruising and bleeding.

Some parents still believe it’s better to accept those risks than to possibly leave their children unvaccinated.

In February, Bridget Butler, a 40-year-old mother of three, asked her pediatrician about vaccinating her youngest son early during the measles outbreak. Butler, who lives in North Carolina, said she grew concerned as measles ripped through West Texas and cases cropped up in nearby states.

But Kennedy’s recent move to fire government vaccine advisers has also worried her. Her son turns 1 in August, when he’s due for his first dose of the MMR vaccine. She’s concerned that her insurance won’t cover shots if the U.S. government no longer recommends them and is weighing whether to get him the shot ahead of schedule.

“It’s a hot mess,” Butler said.

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