Does the federal government recommend more than 70 vaccines for children?

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2025 general recommendations are that children receive about 19 vaccinations and other immunizations.

Those include vaccines against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis, tetanus and diphtheria. The range is from one to five doses from birth through age 18.

Total doses could exceed 70. That’s mainly from annual recommended doses of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines.

Wisconsin requires seven immunizations (19 doses) for schoolchildren. COVID-19 and influenza vaccines are not included.

Before vaccines, many children died from diseases such as measles and pertussis (whooping cough), according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. 

The viruses and bacteria that cause these diseases still exist, and some are deadly, the department says.

Attorney Mary Holland, head of Children’s Health Defense, an organization founded by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. that questions vaccines, said May 1 on Wisconsin radio the federal recommendation is for “at least 77 vaccines.”