For all the years John Snyder was developing his pediatric practice in Amherst, Mass., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was the place he and his colleagues went for the best, scientific advice.
“The CDC used to be, worldwide, the most trusted source of information pertaining to public health and infectious disease,” Snyder said.
That was the case, he said, until Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024 and put longtime vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the agency. Kennedy replaced the CDC’s entire vaccine advisory board with new appointees, some of them prominent vaccine skeptics.
“Literally in the span of a couple of years, it turned into a completely unreputable source of information,” Snyder said.
Now the Trump administration wants to change the number and timeline of childhood vaccines against the advice of major medical groups.
In January, the CDC changed the official vaccine schedule to postpone some shots that infants get. It also took some vaccines off the recommended list, going from 17 to one. In March, after medical groups sued, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to revert back to the previous guidelines and pause the board’s decisions.
All this back and forth “creates a whole bunch of confusion in the public,” Snyder said. “And it's very confusing even for healthcare providers.”
The newly strained relationship with the CDC has also put pediatricians in an awkward position with patients, they say, as they negotiate a public break-up with the federal government in their exam rooms.
“A source of heated discussion”
On a recent spring afternoon, several of Snyder’s young patients came in to Amherst Pediatrics for routine visits.
“So let’s talk about vaccines,” Snyder said to one mother, Tenzin Dekey, who came in with her one-year-old. He explained that her son was due for the MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella, in addition to the chicken pox vaccine.
“So that’s four shots, two in each leg,” he said.
He handed Dekey several vaccine information sheets. Ironically, they are stamped with the CDC’s logo — as required by law — even though the Amherst Pediatrics website says explicitly that the CDC is no longer reliable or legitimate.
Snyder said he hates that disconnect.
“This has been a source of heated discussion,” he said. “How can we be saying do not trust the CDC when it comes to vaccines? Yet here is the information we're giving our own patients when they're in the office about vaccines.”
The CDC did not return a request for comment for this story.
But Snyder didn’t get into the controversy with Dekey, who looked briefly at the information and agreed to all the vaccinations.
“I don't need to talk about it”
Not all visits go that well.
“Some [parents] say explicitly, ‘We are going with what the CDC says,’” Snyder said. “And even if they don’t say that, we have definitely seen increasing hesitancy and questions — and all of that interferes with us protecting children.”
If parents are dead set against vaccines, he doesn’t try to change their minds. He said he puts his effort into the families who are confused and worried by what they hear in the news but who are still open to advice.
Another mother came in with her 14-year old son. (She asked that we only use her first name, Melissa, to maintain privacy over her family’s personal health issues.)
Melissa had previously refused the HPV vaccine for her son. This time, she said he could decide on his own. But other vaccines she was clear on.
“I'm a hard no on the COVID,” she told Snyder.
“We could talk about that if you want,” he replied.
“I don't need to talk about it,” she said.
After the appointment, Melissa admitted she has a hard time knowing what’s safe.
“There is nobody in political power or the government that cares about little old me and my children, which is why I kind of feel we have to make decisions on our own,” she said.
Melissa said she used to consider the CDC’s advice as she researched the best options for her family.
“I worry that it's been politicized a lot. And I don't like politics,” she said. “I think now I prefer to hear things from people, other health care professionals.”
That is one reason Snyder joined with local health departments to create an independent website called Valley Vax. It sidesteps the CDC and highlights advice from local doctors and national medical groups, like the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“I know who I trust”
But even the American Academy of Pediatrics walks a fine line when discussing federal policy.
“We live in strange times,” said Ari Brown, a spokesperson for the academy and a pediatrician in Texas.
She said she tries not to get into vaccine politics with her patients, even though her organization was the lead plaintiff in the recent lawsuit against the CDC.
“I'm there to give families the facts and the science,” Brown said. “I'm not there to provide content about political decisions. That’s not my job.”
But lately, with all the contradictory information out there, families ask her whom to trust.
“And my comment is, ‘Well, I know who I trust, and that's the information that I'm sharing with you,’” Brown said. “‘And that’s based on data and evidence.’”
Ethical and legal duty
But there’s another dilemma facing pediatricians who feel caught between their own expertise and the Trump administration’s vaccine claims.
Sam Halabi, the chair of Georgetown University School of Health, said doctors actually have an ethical and legal duty to follow the best medical science.
“So if you don't inform a parent that they should have their child have a set of immunizations, then they would certainly be liable for some form of malpractice,” he said.
Halabi pointed out that states license doctors, not the federal government — and most states follow the established vaccine guidelines.
Currently, those guidelines are up again on the CDC website, but a note at the top says that’s only because of the judge’s order in March. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling.