Ed note: As we heard from Dr. Paul Pottinger on Tuesday, our nation’s health is being placed at risk because of misguided and harmful directives coming from HHS. New variants of COVID are coming, but instead of tweaking the vaccine to include the variants, a placebo controlled trial is now required for any change in the current vaccine. These trials take up to a year and are expensive. The virus will sweep through our country before an updated vaccine can be authorized. Thus, it seems we are stuck where we are in an anti-vax environment. This will lead to more illness and deaths–a totally unnecessary outcome!
by Paul Offit
On May 27, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), made a surprise announcement. He said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would no longer be recommending Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. The announcement was a surprise not only to scientists, physicians, and other healthcare professionals; it was a surprise to the CDC, which was completely blindsided. Most disturbing, the recommendations go against the most recent data showing who is getting hospitalized and who is dying from Covid.
On April 15, 2025, one month before RFK Jr.’s announcement, Fiona Havers from the CDC presented data to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent group of experts that advises the CDC on vaccines. The committee learned that during the past year:
• About 165,000 people were hospitalized with Covid and 40,000 died.
• About 4.3 percent of Covid hospitalizations occurred in children.
• About 150 children died from Covid, most were less than 4 years old.
• About 50 percent of children less than 4 years old who were hospitalized or died from Covid were otherwise healthy.
• About 1 in 5 children hospitalized with Covid were admitted to the intensive care unit.
• More than 90 percent of children who were hospitalized or died from Covid weren’t vaccinated.
• More young children died from Covid than died from influenza.
• A disproportionate number of children who died from Covid were less than 6 months old. The only way these children could have been protected from Covid would have been if their mothers had been vaccinated during pregnancy, which would have allowed those babies to acquire protective antibodies through the placenta.
RFK Jr. is about to unilaterally eliminate Covid vaccines from the childhood immunization schedule. This move will occur without input from vaccine advisory committees and without allowing for public comment. RFK Jr.’s edict will put children at unnecessary risk of suffering, hospitalization and death from Covid. Although the data are clear, he chooses to ignore them. RFK Jr. must step down as head of HHS. His wanton disregard for the health of children can no longer be tolerated. Enough.