"Couldn't Be Happier": Vaccine-Hating US Health Chief Ends Select Covid Jabs
Washington DC:
COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended in the United States for children and pregnant women who are healthy, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior, who has been a staunch critic of vaccines in general, has announced.
Describing his decision as "common sense", Mr Kennedy Jr shared a video on social media platform X, in which he said, "I couldn't be more pleased to announce that as of today, the Covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommended immunisation schedule."
His announcement comes days after officials in the US Food and Drug Administration or FDA said they would limit the approval of Covid vaccines and boosters - which proved to be a life-saver during the pandemic and helped curb the potency of the virus, especially in senior citizens, children, and pregnant women.
The US government has said that the move will align the United States with several of its allies in Europe where annual boosters are recommend only for the elderly and those with comorbidities (illnesses like diabetes, etc).
It must be noted that while countries like Britain, Germany, and France's decisions are only for booster doses, the US has done away with the two-dose vaccine entirely for children and pregnant women.
The US FDA has also told vaccine manufacturers to carry out fresh clinical trials in order to retain its permits to be able to sell it for use to healthy people under the age of 65. These moves have drawn sharp criticism from medical experts.
Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told news agency AFP that while the new approach matched that taken by other countries, "I do think, however, that the initial Covid-19 vaccine series should be part of routine childhood immunization."
Paul Offit, a top vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, warned the change could restrict access for people who still want boosters, particularly under the US's privatized health care system, where insurers may decline coverage.
The decision to revoke the vaccine for women who are pregnant marks a major shift from the CDC's original guidelines which were approved under the Biden Administration. As on Tuesday morning, the CDC website guidelines, which reflects the original recommendation, states that "If you are pregnant or were recently pregnant, you are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 compared to those who are not pregnant."
The US Health Secretary's new rules are yet to be uploaded on the CDC website.
Though he denies being an anti-vaxxer, Robert F Kennedy Junior has a known history of promoting misinformation about vaccines, and has for long vehemently opposed the COVID-19 vaccines in particular.
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