“We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to make America healthy again,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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NEED TO KNOW
- The CDC is no longer recommending that healthy pregnant women or children receive the COVID-19 vaccine
- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the news in a video posted to X today, saying, “We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to make America healthy again”
- Experts have expressed particular concern for pregnant women, whose vaccinations also help protect newborn babies from the virus
The CDC will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The change was announced in a video posted to X on Tuesday, May 27, by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“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,” Kennedy said in the video, which also featured Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
He added, “We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to make America healthy again.”
Kennedy also took a shot at former president Joe Biden in the video, saying, “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.”
Bhattacharya called the decision to remove COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and children “common sense” and “good science,” while Makary said, “There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.”
The New York Times reports that the advisers to the C.D.C. typically make recommendations for vaccines, which are either approved or overruled by the agency’s director. Currently, the C.D.C. does not have a permanent director.
Kennedy’s announcement comes as independent advisers have been reconsidering COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, NPR reports, but the outlet notes that the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is not currently scheduled to meet until later this month.
Dr. Denise Jamieson, an adviser to the C.D.C. on vaccines who serves on the immunization committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told the Times that pregnant women face greater risks if infected with COVID-19.
“With COVID still circulating, pregnant women and their babies who are born too young to be vaccinated are going to be at risk for Covid and for the severe complications,” she told the Times, adding, “I’m disappointed that this won’t remain an option for pregnant women who would like to protect themselves.”
The CDC website currently states that pregnant women “are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19,” and notes that “if you have COVID-19 during pregnancy, you are at increased risk of complications that can affect your pregnancy and your baby from serious illness from COVID-19.”
Newborn babies are better protected against the virus if their mother receives the vaccine, Dr. Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement, per NPR.
Dr. Fleischman said newborns “depend on maternal antibodies from the vaccine for protection.”
“The science has not changed,” he said. “It is very clear that COVID infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability.”
