Defying RFK Jr., pediatric group urges COVID shots for young kids
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'The majority of what we've seen from the secretary has been a pretty clearly orchestrated strategy to sow distrust in vaccines,' said Sean O'Leary, a physician who heads the AAP's infectious-diseases committee. 'We make our recommendations based on what's in the best interest of the health of children.'
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Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for Kennedy, said AAP, which has received funding from vaccine manufacturers, should 'strengthen conflict-of-interest safeguards and keep its publications free from financial influence.'
'By bypassing the CDC's advisory process and freelancing its own recommendations, while smearing those who demand accountability, the AAP is putting commercial interests ahead of public health and politics above America's children,' Nixon said in a statement.
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The country is in the midst
of a summer uptick in coronavirus cases, and the future of vaccine access is uncertain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not go as far as Kennedy directed and did not remove coronavirus vaccines from the childhood immunization schedule. Instead, the public health agency softened its recommendation for all children to receive an annual coronavirus shot. It now recommends parents consult a doctor to decide whether to vaccinate their children.
The AAP took a similar approach for older children. Its new guide says healthy children ages 2 to 18 can receive a coronavirus vaccine if their parents or guardians want them to have that protection.
Few parents do. The CDC estimates that 13 percent of all eligible children are up-to-date on coronavirus vaccines, as well as 4.5 percent of children between the ages of 6 months and 23 months.
By issuing a broader coronavirus vaccine recommendation for young children, the AAP is trying to boost uptake and keep
the shots free. Between October 2022 and April 2024, a little more than half of children between the ages of 6 months and 23 months admitted to intensive care for COVID had no underlying conditions, a CDC study found.
Still, the vast majority of children infected by coronavirus will have mild symptoms, and few will become hospitalized. Health officials say it has become difficult to measure the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines in young children because the vaccination rates are so low.
Limited data show the 2024-2025 coronavirus vaccines provided extra protection against severe illness in children and adults compared with people who did not receive a vaccine, according to CDC data presented in June.
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But pediatric infectious-disease specialists have argued that regularly vaccinating children makes sense as a public health strategy because evidence has shown each year that protection in children is similar to that seen in adults.
Federal officials have yet to approve or recommend an updated coronavirus vaccine, which usually debuts in late summer. The Food and Drug Administration has signaled it would not license upcoming coronavirus vaccines for otherwise healthy children.
Kennedy recently fired all members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of experts who decide who should receive FDA-approved or authorized vaccines. Four of the seven members Kennedy appointed as replacements have been publicly critical of the broad use of coronavirus vaccines.
For the past three decades, the AAP and the CDC have been mostly aligned in
their vaccine recommendations — until now.
The AAP's schedule 'differs from recent recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, which was overhauled this year and replaced with individuals who have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation,' the organization said in a statement.
Under federal law, insurers must cover the cost of ACIP-recommended
vaccinations. The AAP and other professional organizations have been holding discussions with insurance companies to continue covering the shots based on guidance from professional associations rather than the federal government.
O'Leary said insurers 'are signaling that they are committed to covering our recommendations.' AHIP, the major insurance lobby, has said its members are committed to continue paying for respiratory virus vaccines this season.
The new ACIP panel did not make any coronavirus recommendations when it met for the first time in late June.
It may not even convene a special meeting to discuss the coronavirus vaccines until mid-September, according to industry employees and CDC officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive information. That
timing has become more uncertain after the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC that severely damaged several buildings and traumatized CDC staff. The ACIP is scheduled to hold a meeting in October.
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The AAP's full vaccine guidance, published Tuesday in the organization's clinical guidebook for infectious-diseases prevention and treatment, represents formal recommendations for immunizations for infants, children, and adolescents against 18 diseases. Its recommendations for flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, are essentially the same as what federal health officials, including Kennedy, have recommended.
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