It's a big shift for the CDC: The agency will no longer recommend routine COVID shots for "healthy children and healthy pregnant women," health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video posted on X. The move alters prior CDC guidance that called for vaccination for everyone ages 6 months and up, reports NBC News. Kennedy, who has a history of skepticism over vaccines, appears to have bypassed the usual protocol for such policy shifts, reports the Washington Post.
"Are they making this decision without going to any of their advisory committees?" asked Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "Show us the evidence, the studies that have been done. … I don't know of any." In the video, Kennedy hailed the decision as one of "common sense," asserting that "last year the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children."
Reuters notes that Tuesday's move follows one by the FDA last week requiring new clinical trials for annual COVID boosters for Americans younger than 65, "effectively limiting them to older adults and those at risk of developing severe illness." It may take awhile for federal agencies to sync on all the new guidance: The New York Times notes that current FDA guidelines say pregnancy is among the conditions that puts people at higher risk from COVID. NBC notes that the policy shift could affect how insurers cover the shots now that they are no longer recommended by the CDC. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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