Rhode Island
Major Changes To Childhood Vaccine Schedule Announced By CDC: What To Know In RI
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unprecedented step Monday of dropping the number of vaccines it recommends for every child, adopting a policy that gives Rhode Island parents choice but very little guidance.
Officials said the overhaul to the federal vaccine schedule won’t result in any families losing access or insurance coverage for vaccines, but medical experts slammed the move, saying it could lead to reduced uptake of important vaccinations and increase disease.
See also: Flu, Respiratory Illnesses Increasing In Rhode Island
Rhode Island has the following requirements:
Students entering preschool, licensed Department of Human Services center-based and in-home child-care facilities must have:
- Four doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine
- One dose of Flu vaccine each year
- Two doses of Hepatitis A vaccine
- Three doses of Hepatitis B vaccine
- Three doses of Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine
- One dose of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine
- Four doses of Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine (not routinely given to healthy children 5 years of age and older)
- Three doses of Polio vaccine
- Two doses of Rotavirus vaccine
- One dose of Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine
See also: RI’s Best Hospitals For 2025: See Full List
Students entering kindergarten must have:
- Five doses of DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccine
- three doses of Hepatitis B vaccine
- Two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine
- Four doses of Polio vaccine
- Two doses of Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine
Students entering seventh grade must have met the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten immunization requirements and have:
- One dose of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine
- One dose of Meningococcal Conjugate (MCV4) vaccine
- One dose of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine
Students entering eighth grade must have met the grade seven immunization requirements and have:
- Two doses of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine
Students entering ninth grade must have met the grade eight immunization requirements plus:
- Three doses of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine
- Note: Per current ACIP recommendations, only two doses of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine are required if series is started at age 14 or younger
Students entering 12th grade must have met the grade nine immunization requirements plus:
- One dose of Meningococcal Conjugate (MCV4) vaccine as a booster dose
A student, upon entering any college or university, is required to get or has gotten the following:
- One dose of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine
- Two doses of MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine
- Completion of Hepatitis B vaccine series
- Two doses of Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine
- One dose of Meningococcal Conjugate (MCV4) vaccine in the last five years for newly enrolled full-time undergraduate and graduate students (younger than 22 years of age) in a degree program at a college or university who will live in a dormitory or comparable congregate living arrangement approved by the institution
See also: Get A Flu Shot, Says Rhode Island Health Czar
The vaccine schedule is similar to Denmark’s and recommends children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18 the CDC previously recommended. The changes are effective immediately.
The change, which officials acknowledged was made without input from an advisory committee that typically consults on the vaccine schedule, came after President Donald Trump in December asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising its guidance to align with theirs.
HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.
See also: Get Your Baby The Hepatitis B Shot: Rhode Island Department Of Health
“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement Monday.
Medical experts disagreed, saying the change without public discussion or a transparent review of the data would put children at risk.
“Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project, based at the University of Minnesota.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
See also: RI Flu Cases Rising As New Variant Spreads
Watch: advocate argues for minimum wage in Rhode Island’s going to $20
Affordable Rhode Island’s Michael Beauregard argues that the minimum wage should be $20 an hour, to get closer to what it actually costs to live.
PROVIDENCE – As lawmakers debate raising Rhode Island’s minimum wage, which would impact many grocery store workers, a bill to limit the number of self-checkout lanes at grocery stores is again stirring conversation.
Rep. Megan Cotter, D-Exeter, Hopkinton, Richmond, introduced a version of her initial bill, proposed in 2023, to reduce the number of self-checkout kiosks a grocery store can have open, and mandate the amount of labor required to operate them. Her bill, H 7290, has eight co-sponsors in the House, while Senate President Valarie Lawson, D-East Providence, introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S 2342.
When Cotter’s bill was first introduced, it included a mandate that grocers give a 10% discount to customers who used self-checkout for more than 10 items. The newest iteration scraps that language in favor of a more streamlined approach:
- Grocery stores can have no more than eight self-checkout kiosks operating at one time.
- One checkout line must be manned for every two self-checkout kiosks.
- One worker must be assigned to every two self-checkout stations.
Here’s how the math on the self-checkout proposal works:
For a store operating the maximum number of self-checkout kiosks, eight, this means the store would be running four lines with cashiers at a time. That same store would also need four people monitoring the self-checkout stations, for a total of eight workers across 12 cash registers, both manned and unmanned.
Limiting the number of self-checkout aisles a store can have is all about preserving jobs and hours worked, she previously said.
Why stores are using self-checkout
In 2023, Cotter said her original bill was partially a function of her frustration with using the Walmart self-checkout kiosks.
Problems with self-checkout kiosks abound as each industry, from groceries to pharmacies to hardware to big box stores like Walmart, sets different parameters and triggers on self-checkout machines.
Clements’ Marketplace Operations Director Charles Anthony IV wrote in testimony against Cotter’s bill that the grocery, with locations in Bristol and Portsmouth, installed the self-checkout kiosks to be their “fast lanes.”
“With smaller orders often causing backups across the Front End, the Fast Lanes have helped to maintain a steady pace and take care of our customers more efficiently,” Anthony wrote.
At Target, self-checkout was meant to be limited to people with 10 items or fewer.
Why limit self-checkout?
Cotter’s bill only targets grocery stores. That caught the attention of Rhode Island Food Dealers Association President Scott Bromberg, who submitted testimony against the proposal.
“This proposal is especially egregious because it specifically targets only grocery stores,” Bromberg wrote. “Big box retailers, along with hardware stores, pharmacies, dollar stores, fast food chains and more utilize self-checkout to allow them to deploy their staff where needed most.”
The bill mostly targets traditional grocery stores, but also hits pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens, but might not include big box retailers like Walmart and Target.
It defines groceries as:
- Raw or processed food or drink
- Prescription and over-the-counter drugs
- Hygiene items when a store also sells food, drink and “miscellaneous household items” like laundry detergent and dishwasher soap.
A grocery store is defined as a business that gets most of its revenue from selling “groceries.”
Shaw’s and Star Market’s Jim O’Leary wrote that 60% to 65% of its transactions are done via self-checkout systems and 10% are done through its drive-up platform.
“Only approximately 25% of customers utilize traditional staffed registers. This distribution highlights the importance of maintaining adaptive service models to accommodate a broad spectrum of consumer preferences, thereby enhancing the overall shopping experience and most importantly convenience,” O’Leary wrote.
Which RI stores use self-checkout?
Stores in the state offer a wide variety of takes on self-checkout.
At many Five Below stores, self-checkout is the only option. Home Depot has replaced most checkout lanes at the front of many its stores with self-checkout lanes.
At the discount grocer Aldi, many stores have open self-checkout kiosks. Depending on how slow business is, it can sometimes take a few minutes for a cashier to return to a regular checkout lane, as employees do double duty as cashiers and stockers. Customers are also expected to do their own bagging.
Stop & Shops usually have a variety of self-checkout kiosks and cashiers, but the kiosks practically shout at customers and the scales, meant to prevent theft, often wrongly register item weights, forcing a worker to override the machine after an item is bagged too quickly, or not quickly enough.
Many CVS stores also have the self-checkout kiosks.
Self-checkouts have also moved into the world of fast food, for example at Taco Bell and McDonald’s, shifting workers away from being cashiers.
Is low-skill labor worth keeping?
The two-self checkout restriction bills are aimed at preserving jobs often classified as entry level or low skill.
The worth and value of those jobs is increasingly under fire by legislators and the business community, especially as the debate over minimum wage increases rages.
Rep. Stephen Casey, D-Woonsocket, made the case during a hearing on March 18 that it would be unfair for the minimum wage to be increased because public sector workers don’t make enough, making an argument that low-skilled labor deserves to be paid less.
“So the average fireman in Rhode Island makes $28.06 an hour, so you’re saying that the guy that’s flipping burgers should make $20 an hour?” Casey asked during the hearing.
That argument also appeared during the debate over a bill to give health care workers time-and-a-half on Sundays, as Woonsocket resident Jason Romblad said he was “amazed that people selling us a pack of gum will get time-and-a-half on these days, but a health care worker who takes care of us when we are sick and hurt do not get it.”
A separate bill to strip caterers and commissary workers of time-and-a-half on Sundays and holidays was lauded by businesses groups that called for ending the practice entirely. National Federation of Independent Businesses State Director Christopher Carlozzi wrote in support of ending the benefit, claiming that paying minimum wage workers $24 an hour on Sundays instead of the mandated $16 (a $64 pre-tax difference for an eight-hour shift) means the difference between opening a shop on Sundays or leaving it closed.
According to the state’s latest Occupational Employment And Wage Statistics, published in May 2025, cashiers, an estimated 9,710 of them in the state, make a mean average of $15.90 an hour. That climbs to $16.67 an hour for “experienced wage.” The entry wage was $14 an hour, the minimum wage in 2024.
In January, the minimum wage increased to $16 an hour and it increases to $17 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027.
Other large groups of similarly paid professions are fast food and counter workers, 12,650 of them; dining room and cafeteria attendants, 2,720 of them; and dishwashers, 2,830 of them.
The statistics count an estimated 493,800 employed, making cashiers 2% of the total employment in the state.
CHARLESTOWN, RI — The food website Mashed named Rhode Island’s best buffet restaurant.
Mashed went with The Nordic in Charlestown, despite its prices.
“The Nordic is one of the most expensive buffets in the country, so don’t expect a cheap meal when you sit down at the popular waterside eatery,” the Mashed story said. “The price for adults is $145 per person, $60 for children aged 8 to 12, and $35 for children aged 3 to 7. That sounds pretty steep, but considering that you can fill up on prime rib, a high-quality and costly cut of steak, it seems worth it for a special occasion.
“One of the main draws of dining at The Nordic is that you can chow down on prime rib,” according to Mashed, but there is much, much more, including lobster, snow crab legs, fried scallops, scallops wrapped in bacon and black angus filet mignon.
See the full Mashed story here.
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