The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on Tuesday recommended that parents vaccinate all infants and young children against COVID-19, a break from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his criticism of widespread vaccination.
The group recommended all infants and children 6 months through 23 months get vaccinated against COVID-19 to help protect against serious illness. Children under 2 years old are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and should be prioritized for vaccination, the AAP said, unless they have a known allergy to the vaccine or its ingredients.
The COVID recommendations were part of the AAP’s broader guidance for parents and pediatricians ahead of respiratory virus season and come as medical groups fight against what they see as Kennedy’s efforts to undermine childhood vaccinations, including against the coronavirus.
Kennedy in May announced in a video posted on social platform X that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer recommend routine COVID-19 shots for healthy children because of a lack of any clinical data to justify yearly vaccines.
“The AAP will continue to provide recommendations for immunizations that are rooted in science and are in the best interest of the health of infants, children and adolescents,” AAP President Susan J. Kressly said in a statement. “Pediatricians know how important routine childhood immunizations are in keeping children, families and their communities healthy and thriving.”
The CDC did not go as far as Kennedy wanted on COVID shots and instead recommended “shared decision making” between parents and clinicians to decide whether a healthy child should get a shot.
The AAP also advised shared decisionmaking for children ages 2-18 whose parent or guardian desires them to have the protection of the vaccine.
But the Food and Drug Administration did not approve Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in healthy young children, only those with a health condition that puts them at increased risk of severe illness.
Since it was founded in 1930, the AAP has published evidence-based vaccine guidance to support pediatricians. But it has not traditionally differed substantially from federal recommendations.
The AAP and HHS have been at odds for months, and tensions reached a head when Kennedy dismissed all the members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with his own handpicked representatives, including some outright vaccine skeptics.
The AAP’s recommendation “differs from recent recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC, which was overhauled this year and replaced with individuals who have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation,” the group said in a statement.
The AAP chose not to participate in the reconstituted panel’s first meeting in June, calling it “illegitimate.” Kennedy later excluded the AAP along with other top medical organizations from working with the panel to research and help influence vaccination recommendations.
For decades, the ACIP recommended which shots Americans should get and when. The Affordable Care Act requires all insurance companies to cover, for free, the vaccines recommended by the panel. Those recommendations also help states decide which shots should be mandated for schoolchildren.
The panel has yet to vote on COVID-19 shot recommendations.
Kennedy’s shake-up is throwing that system into chaos. Outside physician and public health groups have been pressuring insurance companies to continue covering vaccines, no matter what the ACIP does.
“The AAP urges every insurer to cover all the vaccines that are included in this immunization schedule,” Kressly said in the statement. “AAP is committed to working with our partners at the local, state and federal levels to make sure every child, in every community has access to vaccines.”
