Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
A panel of vaccine advisers named by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday said that COVID-19 shots should be administered only through shared decision-making with a healthcare provider, scrapping a broad recommendation but maintaining access through health insurance.
The two-day meeting highlighted deep divisions over the future of the U.S. immunization schedules under Kennedy, who has long promoted claims about vaccine harms that run contrary to scientific evidence.
A second COVID vote by the committee, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would have recommended that states and local jurisdictions require a prescription for the COVID vaccine. That vote failed to win a majority.
The committee earlier on Friday abandoned a vote that would have delayed the first hepatitis B vaccine dose for newborns, giving a temporary win to doctors, public health experts and patient advocates who had decried the move.
On Thursday, the panel voted not to recommend giving the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella shot to children under 4 years old. But the advisers voted to allow coverage for the shot for these same kids under a U.S. government program that provides free vaccines to children, creating contradictory guidance.
On Friday morning, the committee reversed that vote to align the policy with their recommendation, removing coverage for the shots.
The acting director of the CDC will weigh in on whether to accept the recommendations.
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