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 suggestion that wholesome kids and wholesome pregnant girls be vaccinated for COVID-19, leaving some specialists involved and others uncertain 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 suggestion for kids or pregnant girls getting vaccinated for the primary time, for getting subsequent booster pictures, 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 best ways to assist shield individuals 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 specialists say the low charges of significant COVID-19 circumstances amongst kids justify tightening the federal vaccine suggestion. Others say that the transfer will make it more durable 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 steerage at a scheduled June assembly.
Recommending in opposition to vaccination for sure teams might make it more durable for most youngsters and pregnant girls to get the shot, if insurers resolve to not cowl COVID-19 pictures 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 specialists.
Kennedy stated baby vaccine boosters lacked medical knowledge
Kennedy stated, “Final yr, the Biden administration urged wholesome kids to get yet one more COVID shot, regardless of the dearth of any medical knowledge to assist the repeat booster technique in kids.”
In recent times, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices – a bunch of outdoor specialists that advises the CDC on who ought to be vaccinated and the way usually – has really helpful annual boosters for wholesome kids who’ve already acquired COVID-19 vaccines.
The committee made this suggestion 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 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 means 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 really helpful COVID-19 vaccinations for kids and didn’t urge new medical trials.
Children usually don’t want the vaccination, FDA chief stated
Makary stated, “There’s no proof wholesome children want” the vaccine.
That is disputed. Most youngsters won’t face severe 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 threat.
Through 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 severe circumstances amongst kids has pushed the idea amongst some scientists that the common vaccination suggestion is simply 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 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 loss of life in kids throughout the worst of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, stated 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 concerning the lingering syndrome often called lengthy COVID, about which much less is thought, particularly amongst kids.
The surface advisory committees and the medical academies discovered this degree of significant illness to be enough to suggest continued annual vaccinations.
Makary stated this coverage is just like these in different international locations
Makary was correct when he stated that “most international locations have stopped recommending” routine COVID-19 vaccination for kids.
“Many international locations will solely supply the COVID vaccine to kids if they’ve underlying well being circumstances or are immunocompromised,” stated Brooke Nichols, a Boston College affiliate professor of worldwide well being.
Makary co-wrote a Might 20 article that included an inventory of booster suggestions in Canada, Europe and Australia. It stated in most international locations, the advice was to vaccinate older individuals or these at excessive threat.
Most international locations have taken this course, Schaffner stated, as a result of “by now, 95 p.c of us have had expertise with COVID, both via the vaccine or via sickness or each. And second, the present variants are regarded as a lot milder than among the earlier variants.”
The World Well being Group in 2024 really helpful the COVID-19 vaccine for kids 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 really helpful 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 suggestion in November 2021 and later really helpful the Moderna vaccine for kids ages 12 to 17.
Within the United Kingdom, “solely older individuals or these with particular illnesses or sicknesses making them inclined to extreme COVID had been really helpful to get boosters, and because of this, uptake in these teams was really greater than within the US,” the place outreach and promoting for the vaccinations centered on kids in addition to older individuals, stated 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 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 no less than six months previous.
Docs say the vaccine protects pregnant girls
Consultants disagreed with Kennedy’s suggestion 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, stated, “It is extremely clear that COVID-19 an infection throughout being pregnant may be catastrophic and result in main incapacity, and it might probably trigger devastating penalties for households. In truth, rising proof reveals 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 stated there isn’t any proof the vaccine creates antagonistic results for both mom or the fetus, though fever or ache on the injection website are attainable.
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 record of underlying medical circumstances 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 Might 27 video announcement, Makary advised NBC that the choice about vaccination ought to be between a pregnant girl and her physician.
A 2024 overview of 67 research discovered that totally vaccinated pregnant girls had a 61 p.c decrease probability of a COVID-19 an infection throughout being pregnant.
What’s subsequent?
In its June assembly, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would possibly transfer in direction of much less sweeping suggestions for vaccinating kids, nearer to those who Kennedy enacted.
“In case you 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 could suggest extra flexibility with vaccine utilization than what Kennedy’s video assertion appears to recommend, Schaffner stated.
Different areas the place the panels might again higher flexibility might be for in any other case wholesome individuals who function caregivers or who dwell with extra susceptible people who find themselves superior in age or are immunocompromised.