On December 5, 2025, at the insistence of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (a man with no medical degree, or any degree having to do with immunology or vaccinology), President Trump issued an Executive Order asking the US to align ourselves with peer countries that give fewer vaccines.
Denmark recommends 10 vaccines, Japan 14, and Germany 15.
Do US Children Receive Too Many Vaccines?
RFK, Trump, and others believe that too many vaccines are overwhelming, and can weaken immune systems. These individuals frequently point out that, as children, they only received a few vaccines, and they’re fine. And they’re right, they did recieve fewer shots, but it’s not the number of vaccine shots that’s important; it’s what’s in them.
In the 1950s, children received the smallpox and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines. The smallpox vaccine contained about 200 viral proteins (each of which induced an immune response). The diphtheria and tetanus vaccines each contained one bacterial protein, called a toxoid. And the pertussis vaccine (a whole, killed bacterial vaccine) contained about 3,000 different bacterial proteins, each of which induced an immune response. So, two vaccines, about 3,200 separate immune system challenges.
Due to advances in science (namely DNA technology, protein chemistry, and adjuvants), the 18 vaccinations children get today contain about 180 separate immunologic challenges. Much LESS of a challenge than the children in the 1950s.
Why Denmark?
Some anti-vaccine activists argue that Denmark (or Japan, or Germany) has better health and lower infant mortality because they give fewer immunizations. Denmark, for example, does not routinely recommend vaccines to prevent rotavirus, RSV, influenza, chicken pox, hepatitis A, meningococcus, or COVID-19. Denmark is absolutely healthier than the US, but this has everything to do with a better healthcare system and a more similar, smaller population:
- Denmark has a population of about 6 million people (roughly 75% of the population of New York City);
- Denmark has a universal, tax-funded health care system, which emphasizes free access;
- Denmark heavily subsidizes childcare;
- The US childhood obesity rate is roughly 3-4 times higher than Denmark;
- The US has roughly twice the incidence of diabetes compared to Denmark; and
- The child poverty rate in Denmark is 4%. In the US, it’s 20%.
But Who Has the Best System?
Certain diseases (Rotavirus, RSV, influenza, COVID-19) will infect just about every child by the age of 10 years, independent of the level of hygiene in the home, sanitation in the country, general health of the population, or access to healthcare. This is as true for Denmark, Japan, and Germany as it is for the US, and in numbers that are relatively universal relative to a country’s population.
- Every year, about 1,200 children in Denmark are hospitalized with severe dehydration due to rotavirus infection – the US vaccine recommendation has virtually eliminated the 70,000 hospitalizations caused by rotavirus in this country every year.
- More than 2,800 children less than 6 months of age in Denmark are hospitalized with pneumonia caused by RSV – during 2025, US routine recommendations for a maternal RSV vaccine and RSV-specific monoclonal antibody have reduced the 60,000-80,000 RSV-associated hospitalizations in infants less than 7 months of age by about 50%.
Perhaps we should emulate Denmark’s health care system, and they should emulate our vaccination schedule?