The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed the COVID-19 vaccination from the list of recommended immunizations for healthy children and pregnant women.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday said in a video posted on X that he “couldn’t be more pleased to announce” it.
“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,” he said.
“That ends today,” said National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who stood alongside Kennedy and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary in the video.
The announcement came after the FDA announced last week that any new COVID vaccine would be required to undergo placebo-controlled clinical trials. NBC News reported that “annual shots for healthy children and adults would no longer be routinely approved,” and that health officials suggested that the vaccines “may not be updated every year.”
“The era of rubber-stamping COVID boosters is over,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X after the FDA decision.
It’s the latest in a string of HHS decisions taking aim at COVID-19 vaccines, many of which contain mRNA-based technology that some of Kennedy’s allies claim is unsafe (most scientists disagree).
Pregnant women are at risk for more severe COVID cases. Studies have shown that the vaccine lowers the risk for hospitalization, stillbirth and preterm birth. It’s unclear if pregnancy itself will qualify as a condition that would compromise the immune system. The FDA recently approved the Novovax vaccine, but only for older adults and the immunocompromised.
It wasn’t always clear how aggressively Kennedy would move on vaccines. In his confirmation hearing, he made assurances to not hinder vaccine access overall. That helped secure a vote out of committee from Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor who expressed concern about Kennedy’s prior vaccine rhetoric.
And a few weeks ago, his former 2024 presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan, claimed someone was “regularly controlling his decisions” after Kennedy supported President Donald Trump’s U.S. surgeon general nominee. NOTUS reported that “among the MAHA knocks on nominee Casey Means is that she has said relatively little against vaccines.”
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Margaret Manto, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.