The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially ends its recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s orders.
The development means that the agency will be making a significant change to its previous approach for yearly shots of the coronavirus vaccine. Kennedy made the announcement in a post on X on Tuesday.
COVID-19 Vaccine for Healthy Children and Pregnant Women
The health secretary defended his decision by saying that there was a lack of data that supports the beneficial use of the COVID-19 vaccine on healthy children. It echoed his longstanding skepticism regarding the need to vaccinate young kids against the deadly disease.
He had repeatedly argued that kids are at almost no risk from COVID-19. While this is generally true for a lot of children, some vulnerable young individuals can become seriously ill and even lose their lives from the infection, according to the New York Times.
The discrepancy between healthy and vulnerable children has been a point of contention between both sides of the debate. Medical researchers have argued about the actual risk that COVID-19 actually poses to children and whether or not they should be vaccinated against the virus.
A lot of medical professionals agree that the original course of vaccination provided sufficient protection against serious illness among kids. CDC data showed that two or more doses of the vaccine were 40% effective at preventing kids under the age of five from being brought to emergency rooms or hospitals in general.
A Change in the CDC's Recommendation
In Kennedy Jr.'s announcement, he said the Biden administration urged healthy children to get more COVID-19 vaccines despite the lack of data supporting its benefits. Public health experts have long expressed concern about the health secretary's skepticism about vaccinations, the Washington Post reported.
CDC officials were not informed of the health secretary's decision ahead of his sudden announcement, an anonymous agency official said. Vaccine experts said Kennedy's actions raise questions about insurance coverage for the COVID-19 vaccines.
Currently, the law requires insurers to cover vaccines that are recommended by the CDC's vaccine advisory panel with no out-of-pocket costs to consumers. A former vice president of public policy at Moderna, Richard Hughes IV, said the development creates a "legal gray area."
The president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Dr. Steven Fleischman, said despite Kennedy's announcement, the science has not changed. He argued that a COVID-19 infection could lead to severe illnesses, as per Time.
