Health
Federal Officials Issue New COVID Vaccine Guidelines. Here’s What to Know
Federal health officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., issued new guidance last week on who should have the COVID-19 vaccine, and it no longer includes healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
In a minute-long video posted to social media site X, Kennedy said: “The COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule. Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.”
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, called the measure “common sense” and “good science.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seemingly contradicted Kennedy, later announcing that children will remain on the immunization schedule, but the agency’s stance for pregnant people is now “no guidance.”
While recommendations coming from the federal government are a bit unclear, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists still suggests pregnant people get the vaccine. The organization says: “Vaccines are recommended during pregnancy to protect against serious illness. The most common vaccines given in pregnancy include the flu, Tdap, COVID-19, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). These vaccines can keep you healthy and help protect your baby after birth.”
University of Illinois Chicago epidemiology professor Katrine Wallace shares the organization’s sentiments, noting that Black women are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 complications during pregnancy.
“COVID can be very dangerous in pregnancy,” Wallace said. “It increases the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, ICU visits and death.”
COVID-19 during pregnancy can also infect and damage the placenta, which may lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, preeclampsia and preterm labor.
Most recent data from the CDC shows the latest COVID-19 booster uptake rate is only 23% for adults and 13% for children. This, as a new COVID-19 subvariant emerged: NB.1.8.1, which has yet to be detected in Illinois but has popped up across the country and is highly contagious.
“We have heard that it’s [NB.1.8.1] not more severe, but it is more transmissible and perhaps a little bit better at evading our immune defenses,” said Wallace, also confirming that the current COVID-19 vaccine will protect against the new variant.
NB.1.8.1 is happening at the same time as a national measles outbreak and other, smaller outbreaks like bird flu and E. coli. Wallace attributes the spreads, in part, to misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiment that soared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think a lot of misinformation that kind of started during the pandemic has spilled over into other things,” Wallace said. “Now, we’re seeing it [the misinformation] manifest itself with other outbreaks.”
