The U.S. has taken the unprecedented step of dropping the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — leaving other immunizations, such as flu shots, open to families to choose but without clear guidance. Officials say the overhaul to the federal vaccine schedule, announced Monday, won't result in any families losing access or insurance coverage for vaccines, but medical experts are slamming the move, saying it could lead to reduced uptake of important vaccinations and increase disease.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will gain access to personally identifiable information for all of the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees. That's according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press. ICE officials plan to track immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States. The agreement was signed Monday between officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. Direct access will be given to the addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates as well as the ethnicity and race of all Medicaid enrollees.

President Donald Trump's administration has released to deportation officials the personal data for millions of Medicaid enrollees, including their immigration status. That's according to an internal memo and emails obtained by The Associated Press. Trump officials have been reaching deep into communities across the country to ramp up deportations and fought for the health data on immigrants from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The dataset released this week includes the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C., which all allow immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally to enroll in relatively new Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.

The nation's top public health agency has posted new recommendations that healthy children and pregnant women may — but no longer should — get COVID-19 vaccinations. The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. Kennedy announced the coming changes in a 58-second video posted on the social media site X on Tuesday. No one from the CDC was in the video, and CDC officials have referred questions about the announcement to Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. In a 58-second video posted on the social media site X, Kennedy said he removed COVID-19 shots from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for those groups. No one from the CDC was in the video. U.S. health officials, following recommendations by infectious disease experts, have been urging annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older. A CDC scientific advisory panel is set to meets in June and will consider recommending vaccination for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice in getting a shot. But Kennedy decided not to wait.

A Democratic senator says she's worried about the fallout from a major overhaul and layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington says it doesn't take a genius to understand "pushing out 20,000 workers at our preeminent health agencies won't make Americans healthier." Murray says there will be fewer health services, more opportunities for disease to spread and longer waits for treatments. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday the department he oversees is inefficient. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota says the ramifications of Kennedy's plans for HHS are unclear and if something gets broken "we'll go back and try to fix" it.

Department of Health and Human Services officials expect most of the agency's roughly 5,200 probationary employees to be fired. That's according to a recording of a staff meeting shared with The Associated Press. Included in that tally are nearly 1,300 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The moves are part of the Trump administration's bid to get rid of nearly all probationary employees.

For 27 years, federal courts have held special oversight over custody conditions for child migrants. The Biden administration wants a judge to partially lift those powers. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee is considering the request at a hearing in Los Angeles on Friday, barely a week before new safeguards take effect. The administration says such safeguards meet, or even exceed, standards set forth in a landmark settlement named for Jenny Flores, a child immigrant from El Salvador. Flores is a policy cornerstone that forced the U.S. to quickly release children to family in the U.S. and setting custody standards at licensed shelters.