RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisers decline to recommend COVID-19 shots for Americans, leaving vaccination to individual choice
FDA tightens eligibility for 2025 vaccines; advisory panel leaves room for personal decision while seeking stronger risk language and maintaining access
Advisers to Health Secretary RFK Jr. on vaccines said Friday they would not issue a blanket recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans, instead leaving the decision to individuals. The new advisory panel’s stance added another layer of confusion to this fall’s vaccination season, following recently tightened FDA rules. The Food and Drug Administration has restricted this year’s vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax to adults 65 and older or younger people at higher risk, a shift from prior years when shots were widely administered.
In a series of votes, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices did not explicitly recommend vaccination for everyone but said individuals could make their own decisions. The panel also urged stronger language about the risks of vaccination, a move criticized by outside medical groups who say the vaccines have a proven safety record. The panel narrowly avoided urging states to require a prescription for the vaccine.
Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics called the decision “extraordinarily vague” and said it would have real-time impacts on American children. “It was a very, very strange meeting,” he said, noting concerns about efforts to sow distrust around vaccines. The panel member Dr. Martin Kulldorf spoke during the meeting in Georgia.
The COVID-19 vaccines are not perfect, but CDC data show they provide the strongest protection against severe infection and death, even if breakthrough infections occur as the virus evolves. Like the flu shot, COVID vaccines are updated annually; however, only about 44% of seniors and 13% of children were up to date on coronavirus vaccinations last year, according to the CDC.
A separate question concerned a very rare side effect, myocarditis, observed mainly in young men. A scientist studying whether people with certain genes are uniquely susceptible told the panel that the Trump administration canceled his grant before the research could be completed. The panel continued considering COVID-19 vaccinations as the virus remains a public health threat, with CDC data showing tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations last fall and winter.
Public health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have stressed broad access to vaccines for anyone aged 6 months and older who wants one, including pregnant women. Several states have announced policies intended to preserve access regardless of Friday’s ACIP decision. A group representing most health insurers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said its members will continue covering the shots through 2026.
The panel also opened the second day with debates about whether to end the CDC’s long-standing recommendation that all newborns be vaccinated at birth against hepatitis B. They postponed that decision, noting concerns from independent pediatric and infectious disease specialists who say the vaccine is safe and has helped cut infant infections. On Thursday, the panel recommended changes to another childhood vaccination: for children under 4, the first doses of measles, mumps and rubella and chickenpox should be given as separate injections, not as the combination MMRV. On Friday, the committee also recommended that the Vaccines for Children program align its guidance with the narrower MMRV usage.
