A few days after US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its child vaccination schedule.
Children are known as “shared decisions” after consulting with health care providers. For pregnant women, there is less guidance. According to an email sent by the CDC on Friday, groups on adult and child vaccination schedules have now turned grayed because they “do not reflect guidance/recommendations” and “do not reflect guidance/recommendations”.
However, the change posted two days after Kennedy’s shocking 58-second social media announcement created more confusion as doctors, parents and vaccine experts try to parse the new language with the announcement that the vaccine will be removed from the CDC’s recommended vaccination schedule.
The update also highlights Kennedy walking as he tries to appease vaccine evasion advocates while listening to guidance from doctors and career scientists reporting to him.
HHS claimed on Friday that the vaccine was removed from the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule, as Kennedy pledged.
The two, familiar with schedule designation and language nuances, said that the Covid-19 vaccine for children remains in the schedule, as other vaccines available for “shared decisions” are still considered to be on the schedule. The Covid-19 vaccine is also on the adult schedule, but there are no specific recommendations for pregnancy.
“This all shows that DHHS doesn’t understand how the vaccine schedule works,” one person said.
In the updated Child and Adolescent Vaccination Schedule posted Friday, the COVID-19 vaccine is no longer listed as “recommended” by the CDC, but is listed as “recommended vaccinations based on shared clinical decisions.”
Other vaccines recommended after shared clinical decision-making, such as the human papillomavirus in adults 27-45 and Meningockal B vaccine in some adolescents 16-23, are also believed to be in the CDC vaccination schedule.
“Yes, absolutely they’re still on schedule,” said someone familiar with the agency’s vaccine recommendations they asked not to name because they don’t have the authority to share details of government deliberations.
During meetings with HHS officials over the past two days, CDC officials were out of the way to be sustainable and experts, and there was no conflict over recommendations, sources said.
In announcing the Friday update, HHS was in Kennedy’s language from the beginning of the week, saying, “As of today, the Covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC’s recommended vaccination schedule.”
“Recommendations for the old Covid-19 vaccine for healthy children under the age of 18 and pregnant women have been removed from the CDC vaccine schedule,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in a statement Friday when the changes were posted.
“The CDC and HHS encourage individuals to talk to healthcare providers about their individual medical decisions. Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, HHS is restoring physician-patient relationships.
HHS doubled in social media posts later that day. This fired in several media outlets suggesting that the CDC is maintaining Covid-19 in its vaccination schedule for children against Kennedy.
“I’m wrong again,” the post said. “Vaccinations are not recommended for pregnant women. Vaccines are not recommended for healthy children. Parents’ decisions to vaccinate their children outside the CDC’s recommended schedule should be made in consultation with their health care provider.”
HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon emphasized to CNN that the recommendation comes from healthcare providers.
“The CDC recommends ‘talking to your healthcare provider.’ Healthcare providers recommend that children get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Under shared clinical decisions, patients should first consult with their health care provider about the benefits and risks of the vaccine. Kennedy says he wants patients to be given “informed consent” before getting the vaccine, and the new recommendation puts it into practice.
According to the CDC, such providers will be those who regularly administer the vaccines, such as doctors, nurses, nurses, pharmacists.
According to the CDC, vaccines listed in the schedule in this category must be covered by insurance without cost sharing.
An email sent Friday from the CDC said the change from “recommended” to “shared clinical decision-making” for shots for children applies to all children between the ages of six months and 17 “including those with moderate or severe immunodeficiency.”
The email also said that children who are eligible for the free vaccine through a vaccine for children will be able to win a Covid-19 shot after conversations with healthcare providers.
Children can get severely ill with Covid-19. Especially if you are under the age of 5. Data presented at the CDC’s final meeting of independent vaccine advisors showed that children under the age of four were hospitalized at roughly the same rate as the last two respiratory seasons, just as they did influenza. Less than 5% of children hospitalized with Covid-19 last season were up to date with Covid-19 vaccinations.
Vaccination experts said they were relieved that children could still get shots, but shared clinical decisions would have to consult with patients first, allowing them to present a hurdle to vaccination.
“Historically, it has been difficult to vaccinate people by sharing clinical decisions,” said Dr. Michelle Fiscus, pediatrician, Chief Medical Officer of the Vaccination Association.
Dr. Susan Cresley, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the latest recommendations (holding vaccine coverage) are relief.
“After disrupting a confused message from Health and Human Services (HHS) leaders earlier this week, we are relieved to see that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US has updated its child and adolescent vaccination schedule to enable families to consult with their children and maintain their choice to exempt children,” Kressly said.
“However, the deeply flawed process to reach recommendations raises serious concerns about the stability and commitment of the country’s immunization infrastructure by federal leaders, to ensure families, whether in communities or other infectious diseases, have access to critical vaccinations,” she added.
Kennedy’s initial announcement is disappointing, and Fatima Khan, co-founder of the nonprofit grassroots group, said the future of children advocating access to Covid-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic Protect from Protect The Protection Protect.
“A lot of parents are doing everything they can now, they call representatives, the health department, the listeners, the public who are responsible.
However, the future of Covid-19 vaccine access for pregnant people is less clear. Many institutional information pages continue to recommend the Covid-19 vaccine for pregnant women, but adult vaccination schedules have been changed, specifying that the recommendations apply only to non-pregnant adults.
“That’s very concerning,” Fiscus said.
The lack of guidance for pregnant women appears to contradict what US Food and Drug Administration officials wrote in the recent New England Journal of Medicine Editorial, which stated that they expect the vaccine to continue to be approved for adults with future conditions. Pregnancy continues to be listed as a condition placed in people at high risk for severe COVID-19 infection.
“If pregnancy is removed as a high-risk condition, what is the decision based on?” Fiscus asked, saying the agency had not given any evidence to support the recent changes.
Pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 infections. Early in the pandemic, a CDC study found that pregnant women with Covid were three times more likely to need ICU care and almost twice as likely to die compared to non-pregnant women. Symbiotic infections during pregnancy are also associated with fetal complications such as stillbirth and preterm birth.
The Maternal and Fetal Medicine Association said it will continue to recommend pregnant people get vaccinated against Covid-19.
“Maternal immunization is the best way to reduce maternal, fetal and infant complications from Covid-19 infection and is safe to administer at any time during pregnancy. Maternal vaccination is also associated with improved infant outcomes and reduced complications, including maternal and infant hospitalization,” the group said.