The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will recommend fewer vaccines for most American children, health officials said Monday.

Illinois lawmakers passed two dozen bills during their annual fall veto session that ended Friday, Oct. 31, including a measure that will empower the state’s Department of Public Health to issue vaccine guidelines amid federal uncertainty.

Chicago and suburban Cook County residents will have opportunities Saturday and through the next several months to receive free flu and COVID-19 shots, as local public health departments roll out their immunization outreach efforts.

Before this year, U.S. health officials — following recommendations by infectious disease experts — recommended annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older.

The recommendation bucks new and murky guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend vaccines only for people ages 65 and older.

In a series of votes, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t specifically recommend vaccination but said people could make individual decisions.

“This is about making sure no family in Illinois is left wondering if they can protect themselves against preventable serious illness,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “When the federal government abandons its responsibility, Illinois will step up.”

The latest COVID-19 vaccines were approved for people who are 65 and older or have certain health conditions. But medical organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics — and some states — are breaking from the federal guidelines by expanding their recommendations.

Medical groups and several Democrats in Congress have called for Kennedy to be fired, and his exchanges with Democratic senators on the panel repeatedly devolved into shouting, from both sides. But some Republican senators also expressed unease with his changes to COVID-19 policies.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as an “immoral” intrusion on people’s rights bordering on “slavery.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is experiencing chaos unlike anything ever seen before. Meanwhile, there’s also growing concern in the medical community over changing vaccine guidelines and the cancellation of cutting-edge vaccine research.

The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity.

The group’s new COVID-19 recommendations come amid a tumultuous year for public health, as vaccine skeptics have come into power in the Trump administration and government guidance has become increasingly confusing.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic, canceled $500 million in government-funded research projects to create new mRNA vaccines against respiratory illnesses that might trigger another health emergency.

Federal data released Friday, for example, shows COVID-19 is trending up in many parts of the country, with emergency department visits up among people of all ages.

Gavi is a public-private partnership including WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and the World Bank, and it is estimated that the vaccination programs have saved 18 million lives. The United States has long been one of its biggest supporters.