The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is no longer recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women and children, and experts are concerned that the new guidelines lack a factual basis.

Washington

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is no longer recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women and children, according to an announcement by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. This change has not yet been reviewed by CDC advisory committees, which typically vote on vaccine guideline updates. 

Medical experts, including Dr. Amish Adalja from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, have criticized the decision, stating it contradicts established medical evidence that shows pregnant women and young children are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Concerns have also been raised that the new guidelines could affect insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccinations in these groups.

Experts warn about risks of new COVID-19 vaccine guidelines

All right, so the CDC is no longer recommending COVID vaccines for children and pregnant women. This is according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. CDC advisors usually vote on vaccine changes and guidelines and then make a final recommendation to the HHS secretary. In this case, the committee has not yet weighed in. Until now, the government has recommended vaccinations for everyone six months and older. The change means COVID shots may not be fully covered by your insurance. Let's bring in Dr. Amish Adalja now. He's a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security as well as an infectious disease specialist. Good morning, Dr. Adalja. And we should note that this announcement by the secretary was made via social media in a video that's like fewer than 60 seconds long. So I get that you may not have the specifics here, but how will this change how people try to protect themselves against the spread of the COVID virus? Like many of my colleagues, I think that this recommendation is a bad one, one that should not be followed, one that should be ignored. What we know is that pregnant women are at high risk for severe COVID. Just last week, the FDA in its new guidance talked about the fact that pregnant women are at higher risk. So this really flies in the face of medical evidence. And we know that children, especially children under the age of four have significant hospitalization rates for COVID-19, very comparable to influenza. So these recommendations, even though they're coming from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, are to me meaningless and really more of, more of his anti-vaccine rhetoric that he's been known for for decades. And I think it's going to really complicate and confuse the matter and really not utilize the tools that we developed for COVID optimally. And it's interesting because you are consistent with other health professionals I've been speaking to on this topic and saying it doesn't sound like a good idea. So what can viewers now do if they want to protect themselves? Because the fact that the government no longer recommends these shots for young people, for pregnant women, means insurance companies may not cover the cost. So what would you advise your patients to do if they were saying, I also think this is as bad advice and I want to protect myself? So I think that they should try and get the vaccine if they believe this, if they fall into one of those groups where there's clearly benefit, like a pregnant woman, for example. There may be some change in insurance coverage. We haven't seen that yet. And certainly it's in the interest of insurance companies to provide this service because it's going to prevent downstream complications that are more expensive. So maybe the insurance companies will not follow suit because they can see that this is not really an evidence-based guidance. We'll have to see how this all shakes out. But I would tell people right now, if nothing has changed, if you're in that group, if you're a pregnant woman, for example, and you've been waiting to get your vaccination, go get your vaccination now. That's what I would tell people to do. We'll have to see what happens. But again, maybe the insurance companies will recognize this as a bad recommendation and one that's not good for their business model. And the health secretary said that the reason for this decision was they found that evidence suggests that children don't need the vaccine. But of course, getting kids vaccinated was about not spreading it to other vulnerable people as well. So what next? Is there a possibility this could be reversed or should we expect that this is now government policy? I suspect this will probably be government policy. There'll be some pushback and you might see some advisory committees come up with differing recommendations. You might see the American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, weigh in. But I think this is what we expect with RFK Jr. He's made his fortune peddling this anti-vaccine rhetoric for decade after decade. So we shouldn't expect anything more from him. Now he unfortunately has political power and government power behind what he says. But I think what we're going to need to do is really listen to subject matter experts and basically tune out all of the garbage that RFK Jr. is saying. And I think that's unfortunately the situation that we're in. He says people shouldn't take medical advice from him, but yet he continues to offer it and really devalue vaccines in the minds of the public. So we're in a very bad situation when it comes to vaccine preventable diseases with him at the helm of HHS. That is a very important point. The HHS secretary did advise people not to take medical advice from him. Dr. Amish Adalja, you are a professional and folks should take your advice as to listen to the people with experience. We appreciate you joining us on CBS News Today. Thanks very much.

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