In a one-minute video, US Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr revoked the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s advice that wholesome kids and wholesome pregnant ladies be vaccinated for COVID-19, leaving some specialists involved and others not sure concerning the coverage’s particulars.
Kennedy was joined within the video, posted on Might 27 on X, by Meals and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and Nationwide Institutes of Well being Director Jay Bhattacharya.
Kennedy, who was tapped by President Donald Trump after a years-long embrace of vaccine conspiracy theories, didn’t make it clear whether or not he was referring to a advice for youngsters or pregnant ladies getting vaccinated for the primary time, for getting subsequent booster pictures, or each. Days after the announcement, HHS’s web site supplied no readability, saying, “COVID-19 vaccines can be found to everybody 6 months and older. Getting vaccinated is one of the best ways to assist defend individuals from COVID-19.” A Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention webpage dated January 7 – earlier than Kennedy was secretary – supplied an analogous broad vaccine endorsement.
Some specialists say the low charges of great COVID-19 circumstances amongst kids justify tightening the federal vaccine advice. Others say that the transfer will make it more durable to get vaccinated and trigger preventable severe diseases.
Kennedy broke from norms by not ready for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to vote on vaccine steerage at a scheduled June assembly.
Recommending towards vaccination for sure teams might make it more durable for most kids and pregnant ladies to get the shot, if insurers determine to not cowl COVID-19 pictures for these teams. Immunization charges are already low, with 13 % of youngsters and 14.4 % of pregnant ladies updated with the 2024-25 version of the COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC present in late April.
We fact-checked the three federal well being officers’ feedback with well being specialists.
Kennedy mentioned youngster vaccine boosters lacked scientific information
Kennedy mentioned, “Final yr, the Biden administration urged wholesome kids to get one more COVID shot, regardless of the shortage of any scientific information to assist the repeat booster technique in kids.”
Lately, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices – a bunch of outdoor specialists that advises the CDC on who must be vaccinated and the way usually – has advisable annual boosters for wholesome kids who’ve already obtained COVID-19 vaccines.
The committee made this advice with out additionally recommending that each annual iteration of the vaccine endure new rounds of scientific trials earlier than getting used, mentioned Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive medication on the Vanderbilt College Medical Heart. (The vaccine had been accredited by the FDA for security and efficacy early within the pandemic.) The panel concluded that the coronavirus vaccine operated in the identical approach because the annual flu vaccine, which has not required repeated scientific trials, mentioned Schaffner, a former committee member and present adviser.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Household Physicians additionally advisable COVID-19 vaccinations for youngsters and didn’t urge new scientific trials.
Children usually don’t want the vaccination, FDA chief mentioned
Makary mentioned, “There’s no proof wholesome youngsters want” the vaccine.
That is disputed. Most kids is not going to face severe sickness from COVID-19, however a small fraction will. Specialists draw completely different strains when deciding how widespread the vaccination programme must be, given this scale of threat.
Throughout the 2024-25 COVID-19 season, kids and adolescents age 17 and youthful comprised about 4 % of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations. The comparatively small variety of severe circumstances amongst kids has pushed the idea amongst some scientists that the common vaccination advice is just too broad.
Nonetheless, amongst all kids, charges of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations had been highest amongst infants lower than six months previous.
“With 4 million new kids born yearly with no publicity to COVID, younger kids have charges of illness much like the illness charges in individuals older than 65,” Schaffner mentioned, citing a September 2024 article on the CDC’s web site.
COVID-19 was among the many prime 10 causes of demise in kids in the course of the worst of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, mentioned Tara C Smith, a Kent State College epidemiologist. “Although we might now not be at that stage … we vaccinate for influenza, so why not proceed to take action for COVID?”
Some docs are involved concerning the lingering syndrome often called lengthy COVID, about which much less is thought, particularly amongst kids.
The skin advisory committees and the medical academies discovered this degree of great illness to be enough to suggest continued annual vaccinations.
Makary mentioned this coverage is much like these in different international locations
Makary was correct when he mentioned that “most international locations have stopped recommending” routine COVID-19 vaccination for youngsters.
“Many international locations will solely provide the COVID vaccine to kids if they’ve underlying well being circumstances or are immunocompromised,” mentioned Brooke Nichols, a Boston College affiliate professor of world well being.
Makary co-wrote a Might 20 article that included an inventory of booster suggestions in Canada, Europe and Australia. It mentioned in most international locations, the advice was to vaccinate older individuals or these at excessive threat.
Most international locations have taken this course, Schaffner mentioned, as a result of “by now, 95 % of us have had expertise with COVID, both via the vaccine or via sickness or each. And second, the present variants are considered a lot milder than a number of the earlier variants.”
The World Well being Group in 2024 advisable the COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters with well being dangers who had by no means been vaccinated. For youngsters and adolescents who had beforehand been vaccinated, it didn’t routinely suggest revaccination.
The European Medicines Company advisable the BioNtech Pfizer vaccine for youngsters over the age of 5 years and mentioned using the vaccine for youngsters is efficient and secure. Euronews reported that the company issued its advice in November 2021 and later advisable the Moderna vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 17.
Within the United Kingdom, “solely older individuals or these with particular ailments or diseases making them prone to extreme COVID had been advisable to get boosters, and because of this, uptake in these teams was really increased than within the US,” the place outreach and promoting for the vaccinations centered on kids in addition to older individuals, mentioned Babak Javid, an affiliate professor within the division of experimental medication on the College of California-San Francisco.
The New York Occasions discovered that in Europe “many international locations don’t suggest the vaccines for wholesome kids beneath 5, however the pictures are accredited for everybody 6 months and older,” that means that they are often safely utilized by anybody who’s a minimum of six months previous.
Docs say the vaccine protects pregnant ladies
Specialists disagreed with Kennedy’s advice towards vaccinating pregnant ladies, saying the vaccine protects pregnant ladies and their infants.
Steven J Fleischman, American Faculty of Obstetricians and Gynecologists president, mentioned, “It is rather clear that COVID-19 an infection throughout being pregnant might be catastrophic and result in main incapacity, and it could trigger devastating penalties for households. The truth is, rising proof exhibits simply how a lot vaccination throughout being pregnant protects the toddler after start, with the overwhelming majority of hospitalised infants lower than six months of age – those that should not but eligible for vaccination – born to unvaccinated moms.”
After a vaccination, antibodies attain the fetus. The docs’ group mentioned there isn’t a proof the vaccine creates opposed results for both mom or the fetus, though fever or ache on the injection web site are doable.
The federal authorities in Might supplied conflicting details about the vaccine and being pregnant.
In Makary’s Might 20 article, he and his co-author included being pregnant on the CDC’s 2025 record of underlying medical circumstances that enhance the chance of extreme COVID-19.
“They actually contradicted themselves over the course of a few days,” mentioned Dr Peter Hotez, Texas Youngsters’s Hospital Heart for Vaccine Improvement co-director. “It seems RFK Jr reversed his personal FDA’s resolution.”
Following the Might 27 video announcement, Makary advised NBC that the choice about vaccination must be between a pregnant lady and her physician.
A 2024 evaluation of 67 research discovered that absolutely vaccinated pregnant ladies had a 61 % decrease chance of a COVID-19 an infection throughout being pregnant.
What’s subsequent?
In its June assembly, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices may transfer in direction of much less sweeping suggestions for vaccinating kids, nearer to people who Kennedy enacted.
“In the event you listened to the discussions in the latest earlier assembly, they very a lot gave the impression to be transferring in a extra focused method,” Schaffner mentioned.
The query of pregnant ladies could also be one the place the advisory committees might suggest extra flexibility with vaccine utilization than what Kennedy’s video assertion appears to counsel, Schaffner mentioned.
Different areas the place the panels might again higher flexibility may very well be for in any other case wholesome individuals who function caregivers or who dwell with extra weak people who find themselves superior in age or are immunocompromised.