Pediatricians Defy Trump Administration With COVID Shot Push for Kids
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is urging COVID-19 vaccinations for children under 2, challenging new recommendations from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that exclude healthy kids from routine immunization schedules.
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The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Pediatric group bucks RFK Jr. on kids' COVID shots
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended Tuesday that children between 6 months and 23 months old receive the vaccine to protect them against serious illness caused by the virus. Kids under the age of 2 are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19, the group said, and should be prioritized for vaccination unless they have an allergy to the jab or its ingredients. In May, Kennedy announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer recommend routine COVID-19 shots for healthy children due to a lack of clinical data justifying the need for annual vaccinations against the virus. But the CDC did not follow Kennedy's guidance to the letter, instead recommending that parents take part in a 'shared decision making' process with health care providers to determine if their child needs the shot. The AAP and HHS have been at odds for months, and tensions reached a head when Kennedy dismissed all the members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with his own handpicked representatives, including some outright vaccine skeptics. Since it was founded in 1930, the AAP has published evidence-based vaccine guidance to support pediatricians. But it has not traditionally differed substantially from federal recommendations. The move to publish COVID recommendations that break from HHS reflects a new effort by medical societies and expert advocacy groups to bypass Kennedy and what they say are his efforts to upend the nation's vaccine system. With vaccine skeptics in charge of U.S. health care, these groups say they want to give Americans — especially parents — as much information as possible to protect children from disease. At the same time AAP's recommendations were released, a group of epidemiologists and infectious diseases experts called the Vaccine Integrity Project held essentially their own version of an ACIP meeting to review evidence on the safety and efficacy for flu, COVID and RSV shots. Members of the initiative said ACIP usually reviews guidelines for respiratory virus vaccines during the summer, but has not appeared to have done it this year. In its absence, the initiative was stepping in. The panel concluded there was no change in safety signals or sudden drop in efficacy on any of the vaccines reviewed. 'There is no scientific evidence to support the changes HHS made to COVID recommendations for pregnant women or for children most at risk for high-risk transmission of severe disease,' said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, who is leading the initiative.
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
The Foods Linked to Short-Sightedness in Kids—and What to Eat Instead
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help protect children from developing short-sightedness, new research suggests. The study examined more than 1,000 Chinese children aged 6 to 8, drawing participants from the ongoing Hong Kong Children Eye Study. Researchers tracked the children's eye health and analyzed their diets through a detailed food frequency questionnaire covering 280 different food items categorized into 10 groups. These included breads, cereals, pasta, rice and noodles, vegetables and legumes, fruits; meats, fish and eggs, milk and other dairy products, drinks, snacks including dim sum, fats and oils, and soups. Children's hands eating fish with creamy sauce and broccoli in white plate, top view. Children's hands eating fish with creamy sauce and broccoli in white plate, top view. vaaseenaa Roughly 27.5 percent of the children studied had myopia or short-sightedness. Those with higher dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids—commonly found in fish oils—had a lower risk of the condition, while children with the highest intake of saturated fats—found in foods such as butter, red meat and palm oil—were more likely to show signs of the disorder. Measurements of axial length (the distance from the front to the back of the eye, a key marker of myopia progression) revealed that eyes were longest in children with the lowest intake of omega-3 fatty acids, and shortest in those with the highest intake. Similarly, measures of refractive error were most severe in children consuming the least omega-3s. The reverse pattern was seen among those with the highest saturated fat consumption. No other nutrients were associated with the development of myopia. While the study is observational and cannot prove cause and effect, the authors suggest that omega-3 fatty acids may suppress myopia by boosting blood flow through the choroid—a vascular layer in the eye that delivers oxygen and nutrients—thereby preventing oxygen deficiency in the sclera, a key factor in the onset of short-sightedness. The prevalence of myopia is increasing worldwide and is expected to affect half of the global population by 2050, with East Asia experiencing particularly high rates. Risk factors are believed to include excessive screen time, limited outdoor activity and genetic susceptibility. "This study provides the human evidence that higher dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake is associated with shorter axial length and less myopic refraction, highlighting omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as a potential protective dietary factor against myopia development," the authors wrote in their paper. Do you have a tip on a health story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about eye diseases? Let us know via health@ Reference Zhang, X. J., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y. J., Yu, J., Tang, F. Y., Li, Y., Yeung, S., Kam, K. W., Agrawal, K., Loh, N. C., Ip, P., Wong, I. C. K., Zhang, W., Young, A. L., Tham, C. C., Pang, C. P., Chen, L. J., & Yam, J. C. (2025). Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as a protective factor of myopia: The Hong Kong Children Eye Study. British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Defying RFK Jr., pediatric group urges COVID shots for young kids
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up '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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.
