MERIDIAN, Idaho — The Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced earlier this week that the CDC is no longer recommending COVID vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women.
"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," Kennedy said.
The change took the CDC and local doctors by surprise. Teachers at the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine (ICOM) are continuing to follow guidance from the American College of Gynecologists, which recommends vaccination.
"In general, we recommend that pregnant women still get vaccinated. And that's because pregnant women are slightly immunocompromised. And so it protects not only them, but their unborn child," said Dr. Don Dyer, a board-certified OB/GYN at ICOM.
I spoke with another OB/GYN who had a different perspective, telling me "COVID just isn't that dangerous anymore... they're technically recommended and of course considered safe, but probably of minimal benefit to women."
ICOM's Dr. Brian Martin, who helped develop vaccines for Ebola and Zika viruses, explains that in some cases, certain vaccines aren't recommended for children because safety hasn't been proven.
"For COVID, it's still being researched how important it is in childhood. So there's certainly the case that in some cases, we don't recommend childhood vaccines, even though we have them," Martin said.
As a pathologist and immunologist, Dr. Martin warns that any virus always risks evolving into a deadly strain.
"That's what we got to watch out for. COVID, certainly we still need to watch out for. And this administration's push to less surveillance, really, really troubling," Martin said.
COVID-19 vaccines are still widely available, but no one knows your health history better than yourself and your doctor. Schedule an appointment and ask questions if you have concerns.
