Kennedy’s vaccine advisers decline to recommend Covid-19 shot for all Americans

US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new vaccine advisers have added confusion to this autumn’s Covid-19 vaccinations — declining to recommend them for anyone and leaving the choice up to those who want a shot.

Until now, the vaccinations had been routinely provided to nearly all Americans who wanted them.

The Food and Drug Administration recently put new restrictions on this year’s shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, reserving them for people over 65 or younger ones who are deemed at higher risk from the virus.

In a series of votes, advisers to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention did not specifically recommend vaccination, but said people could make individual decisions.

The panel also urged the CDC to adopt stronger language around the supposed risks of vaccination, an idea that received pushback from outside medical groups who said the shots had a proven safety record.

And the divided panel narrowly avoided urging states to require a prescription for the shot.

Dr Sean O’Leary, of the American Academy of Paediatrics, called the decision not to recommend vaccination “extraordinarily vague” and said it would have “real-time impacts on American children”.

He said the discussion involved clear efforts to “sow distrust” about vaccines.

“It was a very, very strange meeting,” Dr O’Leary said.

The Covid-19 vaccines are not perfect, but CDC data shows they provide the strongest protection against severe infection and death, even if people still become infected.

Likewise, people can get Covid-19 repeatedly as the virus continues to evolve.

Like flu vaccines, Covid-19 shots now are being updated yearly, but only about 44% of seniors and 13% of children were up-to-date on the coronavirus vaccinations last year, the CDC said.

“If you make a recommendation that people are simply not going to follow, I don’t think that’s wise,” said panellist Dr Cody Meissner, of Dartmouth College.

Another question concerns a very rare side effect mostly in young men — a kind of heart inflammation called myocarditis — that was discovered in the early days of vaccination in 2021.

A scientist studying whether people with certain genes are uniquely susceptible to that risk told the panel the Trump administration had cancelled his grant before the research could be finished.

The panel took up Covid-19 vaccinations as the virus remains a public health threat. CDC data released in June shows the virus resulted in 32,000 to 51,000 US deaths and more than 250,000 hospital admissions last autumn and winter.

Most at risk for hospital admission are seniors and young children — especially those who were unvaccinated.

Worried about access, leading medical groups including the American Academy of Paediatrics already have issued recommendations that the vaccines be available to anyone age six months and older who wants one — including pregnant women — just like in prior years.

Several states have announced policies to try to assure that access regardless of Friday’s ACIP decision. And a group representing most health insurers, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said earlier this week that its members will continuing covering the shots through 2026.