CDC Will Not Recommend COVID-19 Vaccines For Healthy Children Or Pregnant Women, Kennedy Says

The AP (5/27, Stobbe) reports that on Tuesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. In a 58-second video posted on the social media site X, Kennedy said he removed COVID-19 shots from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups.” According to the AP, the idea of “changing the recommendations is not completely out of the blue,” as experts have “increasingly discussed the possibility of focusing vaccination efforts on people 65 and older – who are among those most as risk for death and hospitalization.” A CDC advisory panel is set to meet in the coming weeks “to make recommendations about the fall shots. Among its options are suggesting shots for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice to get vaccinated.” Reuters (5/27, Mishra, Erman) reports Kennedy said in the video, “Last year, the Biden Administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of clinical data to support repeat booster strategy in children.” The CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices would traditionally “meet and vote on changes to the immunization schedule or recommendations on who should get vaccines before the director of the CDC made a final call. The committee has not voted on these changes.”