COVID-19 Vaccine No Longer Recommended for Healthy Children and Pregnant Women, RFK Jr. Says
The Human and Health Services Secretary said the shots are no longer necessary, but many infectious disease experts expressed concern about the policy shift.
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday in a video on the social media platform X that the COVID-19 vaccine will be removed from the recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and healthy pregnant people.
In a joint video message delivered along with Martin Makary, MD, MPH, the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Kennedy called the policy shift “common sense.”
While not explaining why pregnant people should not get the vaccination, the three health leaders cited a lack of evidence that healthy children need the shot and said that most countries have stopped recommending it for children.
“We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to make America healthy again,” Kennedy said.
This latest move comes one week after the FDA announced it would recommend the COVID-19 shot only for adults ages 65 and older and those more likely to get severely ill from the virus.
As of May 28, the COVID vaccine is still listed in the vaccination schedule set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for children and pregnant women.
Professional Medical Groups Express Serious Concerns
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) criticized the policy change for bypassing the long-standing practice of review by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an external body of highly vetted experts that sends its recommendations to the CDC.
“It’s concerning that this decision was made outside of a well-established process that has previously been open to the public and relied on a robust review of scientific evidence,” says Tina Tan, MD, the president of IDSA and an attending physician at the Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
Dr. Tan, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says that healthy infants and children are at risk for major COVID-19 complications. For instance, pediatric long COVID — also called MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children — may happen two to six weeks after coronavirus infection and develop even if symptoms are mild or nonexistent.
“Long COVID can affect development in infants and children,” she says. “These are serious complications.”
Tan views the new recommendations as particularly troubling for mothers-to-be. Pregnancy is a well-established risk factor for severe COVID-19 complications, including preterm labor and birth, preeclampsia, heart injury, blood clots, hypertension, and kidney damage, according to IDSA.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) issued a statement expressing “extreme disappointment” that the HHS will no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
“As ob-gyns who treat patients every day, we have seen firsthand how dangerous COVID-19 infection can be during pregnancy and for newborns who depend on maternal antibodies from the vaccine for protection,” wrote Steven J. Fleischman, MD, the president of ACOG, in the press release. “It is very clear that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.”
All infants, even healthy ones, have a high risk of serious COVID-19 complications, according to the NIH — but vaccines are not approved for children under six months. Studies have shown that newborns are protected from symptomatic COVID infection for at least six months when their mothers receive a COVID vaccine or booster during pregnancy.
New Policy May Limit Access to COVID Vaccines
HHS has not provided information about the criteria being used to define healthy children and pregnant people, so it’s unclear who should or should not get vaccinated based on the new guidance.
Even if COVID-19 vaccines remain available in pharmacies and at doctors’ offices, children and pregnant people may not be able to afford them if their insurance companies drop coverage. Many health insurance companies follow federal recommendations to determine what medications and vaccines to cover, Tan says.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
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New COVID Vaccine Recommendations Threaten Access, Undermine Choice, and Will Negatively Impact Health. Infectious Diseases Society of America. May 27, 2025.
Emily Kay Votruba has copyedited and fact-checked for national magazines, websites, and books since 1997, including Self, GQ, Gourmet, Golf Magazine,Outside, Cornell University Press, Penguin Random House, and Harper's Magazine. Her projects have included cookbooks (Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet), self-help and advice titles (Mika Brzezinski's Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth), memoirs (Larry King's My Remarkable Journey), and science (Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy Davidson). She started freelancing for Everyday Health in 2016.
Don Rauf has been a freelance health writer for over 12 years and his writing has been featured in HealthDay, CBS News, WebMD, U.S. News & World Report, Mental Floss, United Press International (UPI), Health, and MedicineNet. He was previously a reporter for DailyRx.com where he covered stories related to cardiology, diabetes, lung cancer, prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction, menopause, and allergies. He has interviewed doctors and pharmaceutical representatives in the U.S. and abroad.
He is a prolific writer and has written more than 50 books, including Lost America: Vanished Civilizations, Abandoned Towns, and Roadside Attractions. Rauf lives in Seattle, Washington.
