Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Senate hearing on Thursday that children receive up to 92 vaccine doses in early childhood “in order to be fully compliant between maternity and 18 years.”
But doctors tell ABC News that that number isn’t accurate. Excluding annual flu and COVID-19 shots, children generally receive roughly 30 vaccine doses – many in combined injections – before the age of 18
Combination vaccines are single shots that include two or more vaccines that might otherwise be given separately: the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is a common example. This reduces the number of shots children get while protecting them from the same number of infectious diseases.
Additionally, vaccines given today contain far fewer antigens – that is, substances that trigger an immune response in the body – than vaccines did decades ago. Research has shown these vaccines are safe and effective and do not overwhelm the immune system, as Kennedy has previously suggested.
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How many vaccines are recommended?
In the Senate hearing, Kennedy said, “When I was a kid, I got three vaccines. I was fully compliant. Today’s children have to get between 69 and 92 vaccines in order to be fully compliant.”
The number of available, recommended immunizations has grown since the first vaccines were recommended in the late 1940s based on evolving science and manufacturing capacity. For example, children can now receive a chickenpox vaccine, which became available in the 1990s.
When Kennedy was a young child in the 1950s, there were three vaccines recommended to protect against smallpox, poliovirus, and a combined shot that included diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccines.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: A member of medical staff administers a dose of the measles vaccine to a child at a health center in Lubbock, Texas, Feb. 27, 2025.
Currently, younger children, who are more vulnerable to infectious diseases, receive dozens of shots in the early years of life, but doctors told ABC News that the numbers shared by Kennedy are an overcount and a misleading criticism of the childhood vaccine schedule.
Even now, there are no vaccines for most of the hundreds of known infectious diseases. The shots that are available protect against diseases that have a large public health impact, cause severe disease or that can be deadly or disabling.
Kids and teens who follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended immunization schedule get about 30 injections, excluding annual COVID-19 and flu shots, before they turn 18. Because several routine vaccines are combined and given in the same injection, that number of shots can vary.
“I count 33 doses from birth to 18 years on the immunization schedule. Many of those can be given as combination vaccines, particularly at the early ages,” Dr. Pia Pannaraj, a professor of pediatrics and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases, told ABC News.
If that still sounds like a lot, consider the number of germs children are exposed to every day, pediatricians say.
“Kids are exposed to 2,000 to 6,000 antigens every day just by playing at the playground or going to school. That is significantly more than what they receive in vaccines,” Pannaraj said.
“If you count RSV, there are 18 or 19 infections for which children are recommended to be vaccinated against,” Dr. Robert W. Frenck, Jr., pediatrician and chair of the AAP Section on Infectious Disease, told ABC News.
Frenck noted that many vaccines are combination vaccines. These include the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine, the hepatitis B vaccine, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, polio vaccine, and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
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“Most vaccines need two to three doses, some four to five to complete the series. But it is not 60 to 90 vaccines,” Frenck said.
Studies have also shown that vaccines do not overwhelm or weaken the immune system and don’t make children more susceptible to other infections. These include a Danish study published in 2005 and a 2018 study that included about 1,000 American kids.
Researchers in the latter study concluded: “Despite using a different population, study period, study design, and method of defining the exposure, this current nested case-control study arrived at the same conclusion” as the earlier Danish study.
How many vaccines are mandated?
While the CDC makes recommendations for routine immunizations, many are not mandated in order for Americans kids to attend school. School vaccine mandates are determined by each state but the most common shots kids need are the MMR, varicella, DTaP, polio and meningitis vaccines, the CDC says.
Additionally, all states allow medical vaccine exemptions, and most states have exemption policies in place for people with strong religious objections in an effort to balance the need for public health with freedom of choice. Some states allow exemptions based on personal belief alone.
How effective are vaccines?
Doctors say the safety, efficacy and lifesaving success of vaccines has been proven by decades of rigorous research.
Over the last 50 years, vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives, according to a 2024 study led by the World Health Organization. Of those lives, about 101 million were infants.
Still, many vaccine-preventable diseases remain a problem around the globe and some have become a growing problem in the U.S., such as measles, evidenced by a recent outbreak in Texas that was the largest in the U.S. in decades.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images – PHOTO: Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears before the Senate Finance Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 4, 2025.
So far this year, measles has been detected in nearly every state with more than 1,400 total confirmed cases, the highest number of nationwide cases seen in 33 years, according to the CDC. 2025 has seen 35 measles outbreaks in the U.S., with most cases outbreak-associated as opposed to isolated cases from international travel. By comparison, last year there were 16 outbreaks in the U.S. with about 70% outbreak-associated compared to nearly 90% this year, CDC data shows.
In 2000, measles was declared eliminated in the U.S., but many public health experts and scientists worry that current declines in routine immunization rates could allow the virus to again become endemic, meaning constantly present.
One recent study used a model that predicted measles could once again become endemic in the U.S. with a projected 851,300 cases over the next 25 years. If vaccination rates were to decline by just 10%, the model estimates the U.S. could see 11.1 million cases of measles over 25 years.
“I know there’s a lot of misinformation and mistrust but one thing that should not be under fire is vaccination and the public health story success that vaccination has been in this country,” Dr. Tara Narula, ABC News chief medical correspondent, said on “Good Morning America” on Friday.
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“We know that has saved millions of lives. We know that it prevents disability from disease,” Narula continued. “Polio can cause paralysis. Measles can lead to brain inflammation, so if you get sick, it can end up resulting in complications. We have vaccines for cancer, HPV and hepatitis. We need vaccinations to protect the vulnerable, the ill, the immunocompromised, children, right? So it is so important that we not forget the powerful impact.”
According to a 2024 CDC report, it’s estimated routine vaccines will have prevented more than 500 million lifetime cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations and over a million deaths among kids born from 1994 to 2023, resulting in $540 billion in direct savings and $2.7 trillion in societal savings.
Reflecting on her own clinical experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, Narula said, “Let us not forget the toll that can happen, the immeasurable loss and suffering when we let our guard down.”
Jade A. Cobern, M.D., MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a medical fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
