In Donald Trump’s America, you don’t have the freedom to decide if you can get a COVID booster or not.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that, effective immediately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend kids and pregnant women get regular COVID-19 boosters.
Kennedy made the announcement via a 58-second video on social media, flanked by National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Notably absent: anyone actually from the CDC, the government agency that issues immunization schedules. The agency is currently operating without an acting director.
The new advice seems to be undercut by Makary himself, who co-authored an article in the New England Journal of Medicine last week that listed “pregnancy and recent pregnancy” as underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19, and should therefore get COVID boosters.
In the video announcement, Kennedy said he “couldn’t be more pleased” by the development that effectively prevents American families from making their own choices. Prior to his confirmation as HHS secretary, the vaccine skeptic insisted he didn’t want to take vaccines away.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that, as of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule,” he 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.”
Reading from a script, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya chimed in: “That ends today. It’s common sense and it’s good science,” he said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists both disagree with that analysis.
In a statement, AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases Chair Sean T. O’Leary, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, expressed concern about limiting access to vaccines for kids, and the process by which HHS arrived at that decision.
“The way we license and recommend vaccines in the U.S. is really a model for much of the world and to circumvent that process in this manner is deeply concerning,” he said.
“Just as we are seeing with the current measles outbreak, lower vaccination uptake means more disease,” he added. “When everyone has access to immunizations, our communities and our children are healthier.”
At the time of the announcement, the CDC website advised everyone aged 6 months and older to get the 2024-2025 COVID-19 booster, noting it offers better protection for currently circulating strains, and lowers the risk of long COVID.
A separate page specifically for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding also strongly recommends they get updated vaccines, citing clear benefits for both the parent and their unborn child.
Kennedy, a lawyer with no medical training, has made around $2.5 million on referral fees for personal injury lawsuits filed against vaccine manufacturers and has long sought to strip vaccine makers of legal protections.