In a one-minute video, US Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr revoked the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s advice that wholesome kids and wholesome pregnant girls 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 Could 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 kids or pregnant girls getting vaccinated for the primary time, for getting subsequent booster photographs, 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 simplest 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 identical broad vaccine endorsement.
Some specialists say the low charges of great COVID-19 instances amongst kids justify tightening the federal vaccine advice. Others say that the transfer will make it tougher to get vaccinated and trigger preventable critical 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 may 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 youngsters 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 specialists.
Kennedy stated baby vaccine boosters lacked medical information
Kennedy stated, “Final yr, the Biden administration urged wholesome kids to get yet one more COVID shot, regardless of the dearth of any medical information to help the repeat booster technique in kids.”
Lately, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices – a bunch of out of doors specialists that advises the CDC on who needs to be vaccinated and the way typically – has advisable annual boosters for wholesome kids 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, stated Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive drugs 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 manner because the annual flu vaccine, which has not required repeated medical trials, stated 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 kids and didn’t urge new medical trials.
Children typically don’t want the vaccination, FDA chief stated
Makary stated, “There’s no proof wholesome youngsters want” the vaccine.
That is disputed. Most kids is not going to face critical sickness from COVID-19, however a small fraction will. Consultants draw totally different traces when deciding how widespread the vaccination programme must be, given this scale of danger.
Throughout the 2024-25 COVID-19 season, kids and adolescents age 17 and youthful comprised about 4 p.c of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations. The comparatively small variety of critical instances amongst kids has pushed the idea amongst some scientists that the common vaccination advice is simply too broad.
Nonetheless, amongst all kids, charges of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations had been highest amongst infants lower than six months outdated.
“With 4 million new kids born yearly with no publicity to COVID, younger kids have charges of illness just like the illness charges in individuals older than 65,” Schaffner stated, citing a September 2024 article on the CDC’s web site.
COVID-19 was among the many high 10 causes of demise in kids through the worst of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, stated Tara C Smith, a Kent State College epidemiologist. “Although we might 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 understood, particularly amongst kids.
The skin advisory committees and the medical academies discovered this degree of great illness to be ample to advocate continued annual vaccinations.
Makary stated this coverage is just like these in different nations
Makary was correct when he stated that “most nations have stopped recommending” routine COVID-19 vaccination for kids.
“Many nations will solely supply the COVID vaccine to kids if they’ve underlying well being situations or are immunocompromised,” stated Brooke Nichols, a Boston College affiliate professor of worldwide well being.
Makary co-wrote a Could 20 article that included an inventory of booster suggestions in Canada, Europe and Australia. It stated in most nations, the advice was to vaccinate older individuals or these at excessive danger.
Most nations have taken this course, Schaffner stated, as a result of “by now, 95 p.c of us have had expertise with COVID, both by the vaccine or by sickness or each. And second, the present variants are regarded as a lot milder than a number of the earlier variants.”
The World Well being Group in 2024 advisable the COVID-19 vaccine for kids with well being dangers who had by no means been vaccinated. For kids and adolescents who had beforehand been vaccinated, it didn’t routinely advocate revaccination.
The European Medicines Company advisable the BioNtech Pfizer vaccine for kids over the age of 5 years and stated the usage of the vaccine for kids is efficient and secure. Euronews reported that the company issued its advice in November 2021 and later advisable the Moderna vaccine for kids ages 12 to 17.
Within the United Kingdom, “solely older individuals or these with particular illnesses or diseases making them vulnerable to extreme COVID had been advisable to get boosters, and in consequence, uptake in these teams was truly greater than within the US,” the place outreach and promoting for the vaccinations targeted on kids in addition to older individuals, stated Babak Javid, an affiliate professor within the division of experimental drugs on the College of California-San Francisco.
The New York Instances discovered that in Europe “many nations don’t advocate the vaccines for wholesome kids below 5, however the photographs are accredited for everybody 6 months and older,” which means that they are often safely utilized by anybody who’s a minimum of six months outdated.
Medical doctors say the vaccine protects pregnant girls
Consultants disagreed with Kennedy’s advice towards vaccinating pregnant girls, saying the vaccine protects pregnant girls and their infants.
Steven J Fleischman, American School of Obstetricians and Gynecologists president, stated, “It is extremely clear that COVID-19 an infection throughout being pregnant may be catastrophic and result in main incapacity, and it could trigger devastating penalties for households. In truth, rising proof reveals simply how a lot vaccination throughout being pregnant protects the toddler after beginning, with the overwhelming majority of hospitalised infants lower than six months of age – those that aren’t but eligible for vaccination – born to unvaccinated moms.”
After a vaccination, antibodies attain the fetus. The docs’ group stated 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 Could supplied conflicting details about the vaccine and being pregnant.
In Makary’s Could 20 article, he and his co-author included being pregnant on the CDC’s 2025 record of underlying medical situations that enhance the chance of extreme COVID-19.
“They actually contradicted themselves over the course of a few days,” stated Dr Peter Hotez, Texas Kids’s Hospital Heart for Vaccine Growth co-director. “It seems RFK Jr reversed his personal FDA’s choice.”
Following the Could 27 video announcement, Makary advised NBC that the choice about vaccination needs to be between a pregnant lady and her physician.
A 2024 evaluate 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 kids, nearer to those who Kennedy enacted.
“If you happen to listened to the discussions in the newest earlier assembly, they very a lot gave the impression to be shifting in a extra focused strategy,” Schaffner stated.
The query of pregnant girls could also be one the place the advisory committees might advocate extra flexibility with vaccine utilization than what Kennedy’s video assertion appears to recommend, Schaffner stated.
Different areas the place the panels may again larger flexibility may very well be for in any other case wholesome individuals who function caregivers or who reside with extra weak people who find themselves superior in age or are immunocompromised.
