For pediatricians, “selling” vaccination to patients has never felt more tiring or more critical. Anti-vaccine sentiment isn’t new, but its proponents are more vociferous than ever. And as of last year, one of the most prolific vectors of pandemic misinformation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is heading up the Department of Health and Human Services. In January 2026, under his direction, the CDC knocked the vaccines for hepatitis B from its list of universally recommended childhood immunizations, along with the vaccines that protect against hepatitis A, rotavirus, COVID-19, RSV, flu, and meningococcal disease. For decades, pediatricians have been using “the presumptive approach” to vaccination — that is, operating under the assumption that parents will choose to vaccinate. Under the CDC’s revised guidelines, the six newly demoted vaccines were recommended only for high-risk children or after “shared clinical decision-making,” phrasing that puts parents on equal intellectual footing with their children’s doctors. Before RFK Jr., “most families just trusted that there was a process behind the vaccine schedule,” says Megan Prior, a pediatrician in Washington, DC. Now, she says, “Families don’t believe things are necessary or evidence-based because the government is telling them that.” Tessa B. Scripps, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, says sometimes she can’t break through to a family until they’ve come in for a few back-to-back visits. She says some of her patients who are resistant to vaccination are highly educated and even have medical degrees. “It’s surprising,” Scripps admits. “I really don’t know how to explain it.” Read Juno DeMelo’s full report on the daily agony and exhaustion pediatricians are facing as they convince parents to vaccinate their children: nymag.visitlink.me/lzffL9