The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the Trump administration announced Tuesday.
“Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any critical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video posted online.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary added that “there’s no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.”
The move comes one week after top health officials signaled that they planned to tighten access to the annual COVID-19 booster shot, which is still recommended for elderly and at-risk populations.
Previously, COVID-19 vaccines had been recommended for everyone six months and older.
Under the framework announced last week, the administration will allow seniors 65 and older and other high-risk populations to receive the COVID booster shot but require more stringent testing for other populations before recommending it for them.
Kennedy and many of his fellow top health officials, such as Makary and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, have long raised suspicions about distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to low-risk populations.
“Bottom line: It’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing [President Trump]’s promise to Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy wrote on X.
Tuesday’s announcement brings the US in line with other countries that have tightened requirements to receive the vaccine.
Other countries have similarly tighter requirements on COVID-19 shots.
Currently, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, and Switzerland recommend annual COVID shots for those 65 and up, as well as those at high-risk from SARS-CoV-2.
Germany and the Netherlands recommend it for those 60 and older, while the United Kingdom does so for those 75 and older and Sweden recommends it for those 80 years and up.
Earlier this month, the FDA gave approval to Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine for adults 65 and up as well as individuals between the ages of 12 to 64 with at least one significant health issue that puts them at elevated risk from the respiratory virus.
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