Saturday, January 31, 2026

Special Edition: Flu Season & Conflicting Vaccine Recommendations

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This week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its updated vaccine schedule for children, and for the first time in decades, it does not fully align with the CDC’s recommendations.

All of this comes as the U.S. faces one of the worst flu seasons in recent years.

In this Special Edition, we turn to Dr. Céline Gounder, a leading public health expert, physician, and epidemiologist, to help make sense of what’s changing and what families should know.

We break down what the split between the AAP and CDC actually means for parents, where this flu season stands right now, which symptoms and treatments matter most, and how to think about timing, vaccines, and risk moving forward.

We hope this helps you feel more prepared and make more informed decisions for yourself and your family.

This episode is sponsored by 

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Guest: Dr. Celine Gounder

Dr. Gounder is a CBS News Medical Contributor and the Editor-at-Large for Public Health at KFF Health News.

Dr. Gounder is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. She cares for patients on the wards at Bellevue Hospital Center.

She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, her Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Washington. Dr. Gounder was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, and a post-doctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University.

She was elected a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2016. In 2017, People Magazine named her one of 25 Women Changing the World. In 2021, InStyle Magazine named her one of 50 Women Making the World a Better Place. In 2023, she was named one of New York City & State’s Health Care Power 100, a New York State Woman of Distinction, and a National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine. In 2023, she was also elected to the National Academy of Medicine, received the Research! America Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award, and joined the Council on Foreign Relations. She and her podcast production team won the 2023 Edward R. Murrow Award for American Diagnosis S4E5 “Power to Police Perpetrators.” In 2024, she joined the Board of Research! America and became an advisor to the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science.

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