Millions of Americans are set to no longer be routinely offered the Covid vaccine.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior revealed today the the shot would not be recommended for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
RFK Jr said he ‘couldn’t be more pleased’ to make the announcement, adding that it was ‘common sense’ and ‘good science.’
The move reverses previous guidance which recommended the Covid vaccine to everyone aged six months old and over.
In a video on X revealing the announcement, RFK Jr said: ‘Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get another Covid shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.’
The recommendation for the Covid vaccine for young and healthy individuals has long been criticized, given that the groups face a low risk of hospitalization and death from the virus.
There are also concerns over side effects linked to the shots, including myocarditis — or heart inflammation — which is rare but more common among young adults.
The FDA is also reportedly re-analyzing whether the evidence supports boosting healthy people under 65 against Covid.
RFK Jr announced the move with a video of himself flanked by Dr Marty Makary — the new FDA head — and Dr Jay Bhattacharya — the new head of the NIH, which funds research.
Dr Bhattacharya added: ‘That ends today. It’s common sense and it’s good science.’
Dr Makary said: ‘There’s no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.’
Critics say the change to vaccine guidance risks sending a confusing message about vaccines.
About 73million Americans are under 18 years old, while there are around 5.3m pregnancies each year.
People who fall into these categories can are still being recommended the vaccine if they have one of 20 underlying conditions that raise the risk of suffering from severe Covid and make someone eligible for the vaccine, including common ailments like obesity.
Dr Vinay Prasad, in charge of vaccines for the FDA, suggested in a press conference late last week that the CDC’s list of underlying conditions means that the vaccines will remain available for most.
RFK Jr appears to have unilaterally removed the recommendation from the CDC’s vaccination schedule, a power that the HHS Secretary has but is rarely used.
Normally, any changes would go through a consultation period and the CDC’s vaccines advisory body — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — before being made by the HHS Secretary.
The CDC is currently without an acting director.
Last week, the FDA also said that annual updated Covid shots would no longer be automatically approved.
Dr Prasad said, revealing the change: ‘We have launched down this multi-year campaign of booster after booster after booster.
‘[But] we do not have the gold standard science to support this for average-risk, low risk, Americans.’
He said companies would instead need to undertake new clinical studies to show that the updated boosters are providing a benefit for younger adults, who are at lower risk from the virus.
This is a view shared by former FDA commissioner Dr Robert Califf, who wrote in JAMA in January: ‘Covid vaccine uptake is now low enough that large [randomized clinical trials] are feasible to evaluate the efficacy and safety of new updated boosters.’
DailyMail.com revealed in February how several members of Trump’s administration were pushing for tighter restrictions on the Covid vaccine.
Uptake of Covid booster shots has dropped in the US, with data showing that just 23 percent of those eligible for the booster, aged six months and over, came forward for last year’s shot.
Experts say this is linked to America’s health insurance scheme, with the wide eligibility aiming to ensure that everyone is covered for accessing the shots.
Kennedy has a history of opposition to the Covid vaccines, saying in 2021 that the shots were the ‘deadliest vaccine ever made’.
That same year, he also filed a petition with the FDA requesting the authorization of the Covid vaccines be revoked.
Following Trump’s victory in the presidential election, RFK Jr said he won’t ‘take away anybody’s vaccine’.
‘If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away,’ he said in November 2024.
‘People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information. So, I’m going to make sure scientific safety studies and efficacy are out there, and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.’