CDC drops COVID-19 shots for healthy kids, pregnant women
May 27 (UPI) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed the COVID-19 vaccine from its recommended immunization list "for healthy children and healthy pregnant women."
In a post to social media, Kennedy called the decision to drop the recommendation "common sense" and "good science" and said the move brings the country "one step closer to realizing [President Donald Trump's] promise to 'Make America Healthy Again.'"
The post also featured Kennedy in a video, in which he stood between the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and further alleged that in 2024, "the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot" without being based on any clinical data.
Makary said, "There's no evidence healthy kids need it today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children."
The CDC does not currently have an acting director, which indicates the decision to end the recommendation was made by Kennedy. The removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the list will make it harder to obtain, as it will now not be covered by government programs like Medicaid, and insurance companies can also choose not to cover the inoculation.
The previous CDC recommendation was for everyone at least six months old, pregnant women included, to receive COVID-19 vaccines annually.
Makary announced May 20 that the FDA planned to restrict the list of who can receive COVID-19 shots to older children, adults and adults with underlying medical conditions, and that any new COVID-19 vaccine would undergo placebo-controlled clinical trials. Such trials would mean some people would receive the actual vaccine, but others would receive an inactive substance, allowing the results to be studied.
It is unclear at what age "older children" should be to receive the vaccine or what would constitute a pregnant woman to be healthy enough to skip the vaccination, as the HHS website still lists pregnancy as "considered high risk for a severe case of flu or COVID-19."
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