CDC counters RFK Jr., keeps COVID vaccine on schedule for kids
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement Tuesday that the COVID-19 vaccine would come off the immunization schedule for children caused a stir among medical groups and others.
Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seemingly contradicted the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, under whose purview federal public health agencies including their own fall.
As The New York Times reported Friday, 'The agency kept COVID shots on the schedule for healthy children 6 months to 17 years old, but added a new condition. Children and their caregivers will be able to get the vaccines in consultation with a doctor or provider, which the agency calls 'shared decision-making.''
The CDC told the Times the shots would also remain available for the 38 million low-income children who participate in the Vaccines for Children program, under the same conditions.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon couched the week's yo-yo-announcements as 'restoring the doctor-patient relationship.' Parents can decide, he said, in consultation with their health practitioner.
The immunization schedule note dated May 29 from the CDC said that 'shared clinical decision-making vaccinations are individually based and informed by a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian. Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a health care provider and personal preference and circumstances.'
As Deseret News reported earlier this week, Kennedy, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya released a video heralding the removal of the shots from the recommended immunization schedule.
Bhattacharya called the decision 'common sense' and 'good science,' but pediatricians and other medical groups pushed back, noting it could put children at risk and that if insurance companies decided not to cover the vaccine as a result, some patients also might not be able to afford it.
Kennedy and the others also said that the COVID-19 shot would not be recommended for pregnant women. Nixon appeared to include them in the shared decision-making response late this week.
But without a government mandate or recommendation, whether insurance will pay remains a question.
COVID-19 vaccine recommendations have been a moving target. Last week, HHS recommended that those 65 and older get the shots, which are updated to match the variant that's expected to circulate. But it said for the vaccines to be licensed for healthy people ages 6 months to 64, new clinical trials will be required.
That recommendation also included folks who have certain specific chronic health conditions or are immune-compromised, as well as pregnant women. They were removed later.
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