The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued updated guidance on administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children a few days after Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr said the agency would stop recommending the shot to kids and pregnant women.
The CDC still has the COVID-19 inoculation on its vaccine schedule for kids, despite Kennedy saying it would be removed.
Kennedy said in post on the social media platform X on Tuesday the CDC would not longer recommend routine COVID-19 shots to healthy children and pregnant women.
Now, the agency says that children without an underlying health condition “may receive” the COVID-19 vaccine and advises “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and physicians. In the past, the CDC has broadly recommended that children get the vaccine.
“Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances,” the guidelines now read.
The CDC’s new guidelines mean that health insurance companies are ostensibly required to cover the shot, for the most part.
But some health insurance companies have a history of not covering drugs listed on “shared clinical decision-making” recommendations, healthcare lawyer Richard Hughes IV told The Hill in an email.
“Based on my collective observations of payer coverage of vaccines, the bottom line is expect variability in coverage, prior authorization and out-of-pocket, all of which will discourage uptake.”
It is still unclear how the CDC’s guidelines regarding the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant people will change. The CDC previously recommend the vaccine to all pregnant people, but now the agency’s official stance on whether to give the inoculation to those who are expecting is “no guidance,” according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.
Some CDC webpages still recommend that the vaccine be administered to pregnant women given their increased change of developing serious illness from the virus.
Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.
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