In a 58-second video posted on the social media site X, Kennedy said he removed COVID-19 shots from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups. No one from the CDC was in the video, and CDC officials referred questions about the announcement to Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
U.S. health officials, following recommendations by infectious disease experts, have been urging annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older.
A CDC advisory panel is set to meets in June to make recommendations about the fall shots. Among its options are suggesting shots for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice to get vaccinated.
A few things to get out of the way
I don’t disagree with this policy though. (…and that is this post obliterated).
We already take a conservative approach with medical treatments and pregnancy, including some forms of vaccination which we do not give to pregnant women. I have absolutely no problem being conservative with treatment which work in a different way to previous treatments.
With young children, I don’t think the benefit / harm calculation for the individual ever supported giving it to them. The probability that catching COVID would cause you serious harm was always lower the younger you were. Whereas the probability for side effects was always there. The only rationale to vaccinate children was to limit transmission in the population which is something it utterly failed to do.
The role out of the COVID treatments was (IMHO) a high risk strategy but arguably necessary because of the situation we were in. We’re now in a different situation. We should be re-evaluating the decision made in a time of crisis to see if they still hold up.
I thought they’ve always been very conservative about pregnant woman and very young kids for vaccines (and other treatments in general).