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 youngsters and wholesome pregnant girls be vaccinated for COVID-19, leaving some consultants involved and others not sure in regards to 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 girls getting vaccinated for the primary time, for getting subsequent booster photographs, or each. Days after the announcement, HHS’s web site offered no readability, saying, “COVID-19 vaccines can be found to everybody 6 months and older. Getting vaccinated is one of the simplest ways to assist shield folks from COVID-19.” A Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention webpage dated January 7 – earlier than Kennedy was secretary – offered the same broad vaccine endorsement.
Some consultants say the low charges of significant COVID-19 instances amongst youngsters justify tightening the federal vaccine advice. Others say that the transfer will make it tougher to get vaccinated and trigger preventable severe sicknesses.
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 steering at a scheduled June assembly.
Recommending in opposition to vaccination for sure teams might make it tougher for most youngsters and pregnant girls to get the shot, if insurers resolve to not cowl COVID-19 photographs for these teams. Immunization charges are already low, with 13 p.c of kids and 14.4 p.c of pregnant girls 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 consultants.
Kennedy mentioned little one vaccine boosters lacked medical knowledge
Kennedy mentioned, “Final yr, the Biden administration urged wholesome youngsters to get one more COVID shot, regardless of the dearth of any medical knowledge to help the repeat booster technique in youngsters.”
Lately, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices – a gaggle of out of doors consultants that advises the CDC on who needs to be vaccinated and the way usually – has beneficial annual boosters for wholesome youngsters who’ve already acquired COVID-19 vaccines.
The committee made this advice with out additionally recommending that each annual iteration of the vaccine endure new rounds of medical trials earlier than getting used, mentioned Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive medication on the Vanderbilt College Medical Middle. (The vaccine had been authorised 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 medical trials, mentioned Schaffner, a former committee member and present adviser.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Household Physicians additionally beneficial COVID-19 vaccinations for youngsters and didn’t urge new medical trials.
Children typically don’t want the vaccination, FDA chief mentioned
Makary mentioned, “There’s no proof wholesome children want” the vaccine.
That is disputed. Most kids is not going to face severe sickness from COVID-19, however a small fraction will. Consultants draw totally different strains when deciding how widespread the vaccination programme must be, given this scale of threat.
In the course of the 2024-25 COVID-19 season, youngsters and adolescents age 17 and youthful comprised about 4 p.c of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations. The comparatively small variety of severe instances amongst youngsters has pushed the idea amongst some scientists that the common vaccination advice is just too broad.
Nevertheless, amongst all youngsters, charges of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations had been highest amongst infants lower than six months outdated.
“With 4 million new youngsters born yearly with no publicity to COVID, younger youngsters have charges of illness just like the illness charges in folks older than 65,” Schaffner mentioned, citing a September 2024 article on the CDC’s web site.
COVID-19 was among the many high 10 causes of demise in youngsters through the worst of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, mentioned Tara C Smith, a Kent State College epidemiologist. “Although we could now not be at that stage … we vaccinate for influenza, so why not proceed to take action for COVID?”
Some docs are involved in regards to the lingering syndrome often known as lengthy COVID, about which much less is understood, particularly amongst youngsters.
The surface advisory committees and the medical academies discovered this stage of significant illness to be adequate to suggest continued annual vaccinations.
Makary mentioned this coverage is just like these in different nations
Makary was correct when he mentioned that “most nations have stopped recommending” routine COVID-19 vaccination for youngsters.
“Many nations will solely supply the COVID vaccine to youngsters 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 a listing of booster suggestions in Canada, Europe and Australia. It mentioned in most nations, the advice was to vaccinate older folks or these at excessive threat.
Most nations have taken this course, Schaffner mentioned, as a result of “by now, 95 p.c of us have had expertise with COVID, both by way of the vaccine or by way of 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 beneficial the COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters with well being dangers who had by no means been vaccinated. For kids and adolescents who had beforehand been vaccinated, it didn’t routinely suggest revaccination.
The European Medicines Company beneficial the BioNtech Pfizer vaccine for youngsters over the age of 5 years and mentioned using the vaccine for youngsters is efficient and protected. Euronews reported that the company issued its advice in November 2021 and later beneficial the Moderna vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 17.
Within the United Kingdom, “solely older folks or these with particular illnesses or sicknesses making them prone to extreme COVID had been beneficial to get boosters, and because of this, uptake in these teams was truly larger than within the US,” the place outreach and promoting for the vaccinations centered on youngsters in addition to older folks, mentioned Babak Javid, an affiliate professor within the division of experimental medication on the College of California-San Francisco.
The New York Instances discovered that in Europe “many nations don’t suggest the vaccines for wholesome youngsters underneath 5, however the photographs are authorised for everybody 6 months and older,” which means that they are often safely utilized by anybody who’s no less than six months outdated.
Docs say the vaccine protects pregnant girls
Consultants disagreed with Kennedy’s advice in opposition to vaccinating pregnant girls, saying the vaccine protects pregnant girls 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 may be catastrophic and result in main incapacity, and it might trigger devastating penalties for households. In truth, rising proof exhibits simply how a lot vaccination throughout being pregnant protects the toddler after delivery, with the overwhelming majority of hospitalised infants lower than six months of age – those that are usually not but eligible for vaccination – born to unvaccinated moms.”
After a vaccination, antibodies attain the fetus. The docs’ group mentioned there is no such thing as a proof the vaccine creates opposed results for both mom or the fetus, though fever or ache on the injection website are potential.
The federal authorities in Might offered 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 checklist 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 Middle for Vaccine Improvement co-director. “It seems RFK Jr reversed his personal FDA’s resolution.”
Following the Might 27 video announcement, Makary instructed NBC that the choice about vaccination needs to be between a pregnant lady and her physician.
A 2024 evaluation of 67 research discovered that absolutely vaccinated pregnant girls had a 61 p.c 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 youngsters, nearer to people who Kennedy enacted.
“In the event you listened to the discussions in the newest earlier assembly, they very a lot appeared to be shifting in a extra focused method,” Schaffner mentioned.
The query of pregnant girls could also be one the place the advisory committees could suggest extra flexibility with vaccine utilization than what Kennedy’s video assertion appears to recommend, Schaffner mentioned.
Different areas the place the panels might again better flexibility might be for in any other case wholesome individuals who function caregivers or who stay with extra weak people who find themselves superior in age or are immunocompromised.
