Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upended decades of standard protocol in announcing that the vaccine would be dropped from the immunization schedule for healthy children.
The Covid vaccine will no longer be recommended for healthy children or healthy pregnant women, ending a pandemic-era policy aimed at protecting all Americans from the coronavirus.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the new policy on Tuesday, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would drop its yearslong guidance that the vaccine be offered to children 6 months and older.
He also withdrew the additional recommendation for immunizing pregnant women intended to shield mothers and younger infants, who can be at higher risk of severe illness.
“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 C.D.C. recommended immunization schedule,” Mr. Kennedy said in a video he posted on X.
Flanked by Dr. Marty Makary and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who lead the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, Mr. Kennedy said in the video announcement that there was no clinical data to support additional shots for healthy children. No C.D.C. official appeared in the video.
Overall, the absolute numbers of children who became seriously ill from Covid are low. Though children with medical conditions would still qualify for the vaccine, it is unclear whether government programs and private insurance will limit coverage for the shots.
