WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he would remove the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation for children and healthy pregnant women to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
"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's recommended immunization schedule," Kennedy said in a video attached to his post.
However, as of Tuesday morning, the CDC had so far not updated the immunization schedule to reflect the removal announced by Kennedy.
The move, announced Tuesday on X, appears to effectively shortcut a process set up by the agency's outside advisers to discuss and make changes to the CDC's influential vaccination guidance, which is directly tied to what insurers are required to cover and liability protections.
Those advisers had already been weighing whether and how to narrow the agency's COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to only older adults and other people with an underlying condition that put them at risk of more severe illness from COVID-19.
The CDC's immunization schedule is not only a guide for doctors — it also determines insurance coverage for most major private plans and Medicaid expansion programs.
It remains unclear what federal health officials consider "healthy."
