The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its COVID-19 vaccine guidance for children on Thursday, marking a significant change in policy.
The CDC no longer recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children starting at six months of age.
Instead, the agency now advises that vaccination for children six months and older be determined through “shared clinical decision-making” between families and healthcare providers.
Previously, the CDC had recommended that all children receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine beginning at six months.
The agency’s latest guidance reflects a shift away from this universal recommendation, stating that parents who want their children vaccinated can do so with the advice of their healthcare provider.
The CDC’s announcement also emphasized that this new approach would require health insurance companies to continue covering the vaccine’s cost, ensuring access for families who choose vaccination.
This update comes shortly after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced earlier in the week that the COVID-19 vaccine would be “removed” from the childhood immunization schedule.
Kennedy stated in a video posted on the social media platform X that the vaccine would no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, as the New York Post reported.
“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.
Kennedy framed the removal as a victory aligned with former President Donald Trump’s promise to “make America healthy again,” calling the decision “common sense” and “good science.”
However, the CDC’s updated guidance does not fully remove the vaccine from the schedule but rather changes how vaccination decisions are made for children.
The CDC still lists the vaccine on its adult immunization schedule, though its guidance for pregnant women remains ambiguous, marking the COVID-19 shot as “No Guidance/Not Applicable” for that group.
When contacted for comment, the HHS did not respond directly to questions about the apparent discrepancies between Kennedy’s announcement and the CDC’s published guidance.
However, a spokesperson for HHS told The New York Times that the Biden-era recommendations for vaccinating healthy children under 18 and pregnant women had been removed from the CDC’s vaccine schedule.
The spokesperson also noted that the CDC and HHS encourage individuals to consult their healthcare providers to make personalized vaccination decisions.
This policy shift reflects a broader move toward individualized decision-making based on clinical judgment rather than blanket recommendations. Kennedy emphasized that the HHS, under his leadership, is restoring the doctor-patient relationship.
He argued that if parents wish to vaccinate their healthy children, they should do so based on informed consent and the clinical advice of their healthcare provider.
Kennedy is not alone in questioning the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to low-risk groups.
Other prominent health officials, including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, have expressed skepticism about vaccinating populations at low risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes.
The CDC’s current guidance states that COVID-19 vaccination for children six months and older is available upon request and clinical discretion. It no longer issues a broad recommendation for vaccination in healthy children, reflecting a narrowing of the vaccine’s intended use within pediatric populations.
