Latest news with #healthpolicy
New York Times
2 days ago
- General
- New York Times
C.D.C. Contradicts Kennedy and Keeps Advice That Children May Get Covid Shots
Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Covid shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely counters Mr. Kennedy's new policy. The agency kept Covid shots on the schedule for children 6 months to 17 years old with 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 shots will also continue to be available under those terms to about 38 million low-income children who rely on the Vaccines for Children program, according to an emailed update from the C.D.C. on Friday. However, the picture is less certain now for pregnant women, a group the C.D.C. had considered to be at high risk for a bad outcome from the virus. The official C.D.C. position for pregnant women is 'no guidance,' according to a communication released from the agency Friday. Mr. Kennedy's pronouncement on Tuesday had included a decision to drop the recommendation for pregnant women to receive Covid shots. The C.D.C.'s new guidance on pregnant women is a troubling turn of events for experts familiar with research showing that their risk of stillbirth, hospitalization and death rises if they have Covid. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician and chief medical officer with the Association of Immunization Managers, said that based on federal health officials' statements in recent days, she had expected to see a recommendation for pregnant women to get the vaccine if they had an additional condition putting them at high risk.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
RFK Jr ends COVID vaccine recommendation: What do facts say about risks?
In a one-minute video, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr revoked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation that healthy children and healthy pregnant women be vaccinated for COVID-19, leaving some experts concerned and others unsure about the policy's details. Kennedy was joined in the video, posted on May 27 on X, by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya. Kennedy, who was tapped by President Donald Trump after a years-long embrace of vaccine conspiracy theories, did not make it clear whether he was referring to a recommendation for children or pregnant women getting vaccinated for the first time, for getting subsequent booster shots, or both. Days after the announcement, HHS's website provided no clarity, saying, 'COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone 6 months and older. Getting vaccinated is the best way to help protect people from COVID-19.' A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage dated January 7 – before Kennedy was secretary – provided a similar broad vaccine endorsement. Some experts say the low rates of serious COVID-19 cases among children justify tightening the federal vaccine recommendation. Others say that the move will make it harder to get vaccinated and cause preventable serious illnesses. Kennedy broke from norms by not waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to vote on vaccine guidance at a scheduled June meeting. Recommending against vaccination for certain groups could make it harder for most children and pregnant women to get the shot, if insurers decide not to cover COVID-19 shots for those groups. Immunization rates are already low, with 13 percent of children and 14.4 percent of pregnant women up to date with the 2024-25 edition of the COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC found in late April. We fact-checked the three federal health officials' comments with health experts. Kennedy said, 'Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot, despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.' In recent years, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices – a group of outside experts that advises the CDC on who should be vaccinated and how often – has recommended annual boosters for healthy children who have already received COVID-19 vaccines. The committee made this recommendation without also recommending that every annual iteration of the vaccine undergo new rounds of clinical trials before being used, said Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. (The vaccine had been approved by the FDA for safety and efficacy early in the pandemic.) The panel concluded that the coronavirus vaccine operated in the same way as the annual flu vaccine, which has not required repeated clinical trials, said Schaffner, a former committee member and current adviser. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians also recommended COVID-19 vaccinations for children and did not urge new clinical trials. Makary said, 'There's no evidence healthy kids need' the vaccine. This is disputed. Most children will not face serious illness from COVID-19, but a small fraction will. Experts draw different lines when deciding how widespread the vaccination programme needs to be, given this scale of risk. During the 2024-25 COVID-19 season, children and adolescents age 17 and younger comprised about 4 percent of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations. The relatively small number of serious cases among children has driven the belief among some scientists that the universal vaccination recommendation is too broad. However, among all children, rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalisations were highest among infants less than six months old. 'With 4 million new children born every year with no exposure to COVID, young children have rates of disease similar to the disease rates in people older than 65,' Schaffner said, citing a September 2024 article on the CDC's website. COVID-19 was among the top 10 causes of death in children during the worst of the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, said Tara C Smith, a Kent State University epidemiologist. 'Though we may no longer be at that stage … we vaccinate for influenza, so why not continue to do so for COVID?' Some doctors are concerned about the lingering syndrome known as long COVID, about which less is known, especially among children. The outside advisory committees and the medical academies found this level of serious disease to be sufficient to recommend continued annual vaccinations. Makary was accurate when he said that 'most countries have stopped recommending' routine COVID-19 vaccination for children. 'Many countries will only offer the COVID vaccine to children if they have underlying health conditions or are immunocompromised,' said Brooke Nichols, a Boston University associate professor of global health. Makary co-wrote a May 20 article that included a list of booster recommendations in Canada, Europe and Australia. It said in most countries, the recommendation was to vaccinate older people or those at high risk. Most countries have taken this course, Schaffner said, because 'by now, 95 percent of us have had experience with COVID, either through the vaccine or through illness or both. And second, the current variants are thought to be much milder than some of the earlier variants.' The World Health Organization in 2024 recommended the COVID-19 vaccine for children with health risks who had never been vaccinated. For children and adolescents who had previously been vaccinated, it did not routinely recommend revaccination. The European Medicines Agency recommended the BioNtech Pfizer vaccine for children over the age of five years and said the use of the vaccine for children is effective and safe. Euronews reported that the agency issued its recommendation in November 2021 and later recommended the Moderna vaccine for children ages 12 to 17. In the United Kingdom, 'only older people or those with specific diseases or illnesses making them susceptible to severe COVID were recommended to get boosters, and as a result, uptake in those groups was actually higher than in the US,' where outreach and advertising for the vaccinations focused on children as well as older people, said Babak Javid, an associate professor in the division of experimental medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. The New York Times found that in Europe 'many countries do not recommend the vaccines for healthy children under 5, but the shots are approved for everyone 6 months and older,' meaning that they can be safely used by anyone who's at least six months old. Experts disagreed with Kennedy's recommendation against vaccinating pregnant women, saying the vaccine protects pregnant women and their infants. Steven J Fleischman, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists president, said, 'It is very clear that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families. In fact, growing evidence shows just how much vaccination during pregnancy protects the infant after birth, with the vast majority of hospitalised infants less than six months of age – those who are not yet eligible for vaccination – born to unvaccinated mothers.' After a vaccination, antibodies reach the fetus. The doctors' group said there is no evidence the vaccine creates adverse effects for either mother or the fetus, although fever or pain at the injection site are possible. The federal government in May provided conflicting information about the vaccine and pregnancy. In Makary's May 20 article, he and his co-author included pregnancy on the CDC's 2025 list of underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19. 'They literally contradicted themselves over the course of a couple of days,' said Dr Peter Hotez, Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development co-director. 'It appears RFK Jr reversed his own FDA's decision.' Following the May 27 video announcement, Makary told NBC that the decision about vaccination should be between a pregnant woman and her doctor. A 2024 review of 67 studies found that fully vaccinated pregnant women had a 61 percent lower likelihood of a COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. In its June meeting, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices might move towards less sweeping recommendations for vaccinating children, closer to those that Kennedy enacted. 'If you listened to the discussions in the most recent previous meeting, they very much seemed to be moving in a more targeted approach,' Schaffner said. The question of pregnant women may be one where the advisory committees may recommend more flexibility with vaccine usage than what Kennedy's video statement seems to suggest, Schaffner said. Other areas where the panels could back greater flexibility could be for otherwise healthy people who serve as caregivers or who live with more vulnerable people who are advanced in age or are immunocompromised.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
RFK Jr.'s imprint on covid vaccines and public health
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s skepticism of vaccines and mainstream medicine is making waves in the agency he oversees. Host Colby Itkowitz talks with The Post's national health reporter Lena Sun and health and science accountability reporter Lauren Weber about how Kennedy's recent vaccine announcement and his 'Make America Healthy Again' movement are shaping health policy for all Americans. Today's show was produced by Laura Benshoff with help from Elana Gordon. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks also to Leonard Bernstein. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
The Sun
3 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Brits face SMOKING BAN in Spain with lighting up around the pool, in outdoor clubs & even on sunny terraces outlawed
BRITS heading to Spain this summer may be in for a surprise as a tough new smoking ban has been proposed - applying to even terraces, swimming pools and open-air nightclubs. The measure was inspired by an anti-smoking plan aimed at expanding smoke-free zones across Spain. 4 4 The purpose of the law is to extend smoke-free zones to include terraces, bus stops, work vehicles, university campuses, communal swimming pools and open-air nightclubs. Spain's Minister of Health Mónica García told El Pais that she was pushing for the measure so that "Spain can once again be at the forefront of anti-tobacco policies." She added: "I hope we don't give in to the lobbies that are exerting significant pressure, as they always have. "And the tobacco lobby is doing its job. But ours is to defend the health of the population, of the citizens." Spain's Ministry of Health confirmed the measure today and the bill awaits approval from Spain's Council of Ministers followed by the country's parliament. There, it will have to be agreed by other parties before it is made an official law. While this smoking ban will be nationwide, bans have recently been implemented across Spanish beaches. A smoking ban on L'Albir, a popular beach in Alicante, was announced in March. The mayor of L'Alfas Vincente Arques said: "This measure is part of the council's policy to position ourselves as a benchmark for healthy international tourism." It comes as the country has been hit by a wave of protests against overtourism. Thousands flooded the streets of the Canary Islands in mid-May in Spain's third wave of protests this year. Protests have taken place in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Ela Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, and Lanzarote. 4
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
RFK Jr. says COVID-19 shot isn't recommended for healthy kids
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the COVID shot has been taken off of the country's recommended vaccine list for healthy children and pregnant women, a seismic shift in the government's approach to the virus. The decision to back the immunization only for adults and those with existing health conditions reverses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's earlier stance that everyone six months of age and older get vaccinated. "With the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, it is time to move forward,' the Department of Health and Human Services said in an emailed statement. The move underscores the profound impact Kennedy is exerting on immunizations in the U.S., a polarizing topic that has long galvanized his base of vaccine critics. His social media announcement also leapfrogged a planned meeting of medical experts who guide the CDC on vaccine policy to evaluate which Americans would benefit most from the shots. "This is really a concerning decision because it goes outside the normal process,' said Sean O'Leary, pediatrician and a liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The decision is especially concerning for children under two years old who are at higher risk from the virus and babies under six months old who rely on their mothers for antibodies, he said. But the announcement also came as a relief to investors, who were expecting Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, to stop recommending the vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax for a greater number of Americans. Shares in Moderna were up 2.8% at 1:21 p.m. in New York. Novavax rose 3%, while Pfizer gained 1%. Most Americans who get COVID shots each year are 65 or older, or have underlying conditions, Novavax said. Pfizer and Moderna didn't immediately comment. The two companies are seeking full U.S. approval for their COVID shots for younger children, after years of selling them on an emergency basis granted during the pandemic. Continued decline Vaccine experts struggled to recall another time when the nation's top health official undid the CDC's earlier recommendation. Still, it's a continuation of what's been happening in the country. Since before Kennedy was in his role, ACIP had been looking into whether the vaccines should target only high-risk children and adults, and the group was expected to vote on the issue at a meeting in June. Under Kennedy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will no longer approve COVID booster shots for healthy adults and children without new studies confirming the safety and effectiveness of repeat exposures. And parents have largely ignored vaccine recommendations as memories of the pandemic fade. Just 13% of children were immunized against COVID last season, according to the CDC. That's about half the rate of adults, which is still well below universal coverage. But children do still face serious risks. More than 150 kids under age 18 died from COVID in the year ended August 2024, according to the CDC. A COVID infection can increase a child's chances of developing Type 2 diabetes, and researchers estimate about 6 million American children may have long COVID. The U.S. vaccine schedule guides doctors on when to give shots to children, and helps insurers decide which to cover. While parents can still pay for the vaccines, the move likely eliminates the requirement that private insurance pay for the shots for children. It may also end access for some 38 million low-income children who get free immunizations through the Vaccines for Children program, experts said. Vulnerable families "We don't know how this will impact insurance coverage and it could be taking away choice for families,' O'Leary said. Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the group was extremely disappointed that COVID vaccines won't be recommended during pregnancy. "It is very clear that Covid infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families,' he said. Making it harder for children and pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID also could put vulnerable family members at risk, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law San Francisco. "It's sending a message to the public that these are not a good idea and that's obviously problematic,' Reiss said. "It's very conceivable that people will die because of this decision.' No health secretary has changed vaccine recommendations before in this way, said Richard Hughes, a health lawyer at the firm Epstein Becker Green and former drug company executive. It's a "legal gray area,' he said. Details of the CDC's new approach remain unclear. The agency didn't provide any additional information about its recommendations, which appear to conflict with the FDA's demand for more studies in some patient groups. Pregnant women, for example, still qualify for COVID boosters under the FDA's rules, though they're no longer recommended by the CDC. Welcomed news Allies of Kennedy who have criticized the COVID vaccine celebrated the announcement and said they would like to see a reevaluation of the childhood vaccine schedule go further than COVID vaccines. Mary Holland, chief executive officer of Children's Health Defense, the organization critical of vaccines where Kennedy worked before moving into government, said a change to the childhood schedule that excludes COVID boosters will prevent injuries and deaths. The FDA has determined that the benefits of existing COVID vaccines for children outweigh the risks. In April, it asked the drug companies to warn about myocarditis and pericarditis, a type of inflammation around the heart, in young men age 16 to 25. It cited insurance data showing 38 cases per million doses in the group, while overall there are eight cases per million doses. It's not clear whether the inflammation results in long-term health complications, the agency said. Del Bigtree, who served as Kennedy's presidential campaign spokesman and founded the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network that amplifies criticism of vaccine safety, said he wants the recommendation that all infants get a hepatitis B shot revisited as well.
