CDC drops COVID vaccine recommendation for children and pregnant women
Last week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, and the agency’s chief vaccine advisor, Vinay Prasad, MD, released a paper outlining proposed policy shifts in how COVID-19 boosters are approved. Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is following suit, changing its recommendations regarding who should receive the vaccine in the first place.
In a video posted on social media, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for “healthy” children or pregnant women. Making it official, the CDC has removed COVID-19 from the list of immunizations recommended for patients in those categories.
While Prasad and Makary, in their proposal, called for an “evidence-based approach” to approvals—emphasizing the need for new research to determine whether boosters are medically advisable—Kennedy cited a lack of “clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children” as a primary reason for the CDC’s change.
Makary joined Kennedy for the announcement, along with Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, director at the National Institutes of Health. The trio expressed support for the CDC’s shift.
"It's common sense and it's good science," Bhattacharya said.
Makary reiterated the views he and Prasad outlined in their paper, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“There’s no evidence that healthy kids need [a COVID vaccine] today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children,” Makary added. He emphasized that the U.S. has one of the most aggressive vaccination policies in the world, broadly advocating for annual boosters in all patient populations, regardless of health or age.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet next month to discuss the changes and develop a framework for future COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. While the FDA can change the approval process, vaccine recommendations fall under the CDC’s jurisdiction.
However, the announcement from HHS—featuring Bhattacharya and Makary—suggests that the agencies are aligned moving forward on implementing stricter controls and conducting more rigorous clinical studies to demonstrate the safety, efficacy, and necessity of future COVID-19 vaccinations.
Prasad and Makary noted that high-risk populations—such as individuals of any age who are immunocompromised and adults aged 65 and older—are still recommended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters, as they are more likely to develop serious illness.
In their New England Journal of Medicine paper, the authors argue that the FDA should end its current policy of treating COVID-19 vaccines on par with seasonal flu shots, citing a lack of data to justify the comparison.
The full analysis from Makary and Prasad can be found here.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.