RFK Jr. revokes COVID shot recommendations for kids, during pregnancy
arstechnica.com

...

Anti-vaccine advocate and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unilaterally revoked federal recommendations for healthy children and pregnant people to get COVID-19 booster shots.

The abrupt change, announced on social media, could make it yet more difficult, if not impossible, for healthy children and pregnant people to have access to the seasonal vaccines, which have proven safe and effective at protecting both of those groups from severe illness.

In a regulatory meeting last week, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Ruth Link-Gelles presented 2023"2024 data showing that COVID-19 boosters effectively protected children and teens from needing urgent or emergency care due to COVID-19 (slide 36). In children 9 months to 4 years old in that season, the boosters provided 52 percent added effectiveness over background immunity from past vaccination and illness. The boosters were 64 percent effective in kids ages 5 to 17.

Likewise, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and health experts have firmly recommended COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant people. Even leaders of the Food and Drug Administration under Kennedy have identified pregnancy as a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19. Last week, FDA leaders announced a framework to restrict COVID-19 booster access only to people 65 and older and those with medical conditions that increase risks"the FDA's list of those medical conditions includes "pregnancy and recent pregnancy."

Vaccination during pregnancy also protects newborns. A 2022 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy "reduced risk of hospitalization for COVID-19, including for critical illness, among infants younger than 6 months of age."
Unprecedented

Nevertheless, in the video posted on social media Tuesday, Kennedy announced that he "couldn't be more pleased" that "as of today" the COVID-19 vaccine has been removed from the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. He falsely claimed that there was a "lack of any clinical data" to support the use of booster shots. ...

Underlying Conditions and the Higher Risk for Severe COVID-19 (February 2025)
www.cdc.gov

... An updated list of high-risk underlying conditions, along with their associated evidence, is provided below. The conditions are grouped by the level of evidence, with the highest level shown in the top section. ...

See the article for the list ...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Changes His Mind About COVID Vaccine
www.newsweek.com

... Why It Matters

Just two weeks ago, the CDC stated that COVID-19 vaccination is especially crucial for individuals at the highest risk of severe infection, including pregnant women, to "protect themselves and their infants." ...

Safety of COVID-19 Vaccination in United States Children Ages 5 to 11 Years (2022)
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

... RESULTS:

Among 48 795 children ages 5 to 11 years enrolled in v-safe, most reported reactions were mild-to-moderate, most frequently reported the day after vaccination, and were more common after dose 2. VAERS received 7578 adverse event reports; 97% were nonserious. On review of 194 serious VAERS reports, 15 myocarditis cases were verified; 8 occurred in boys after dose 2 (reporting rate 2.2 per million doses). In the Vaccine Safety Datalink, no safety signals were detected in weekly sequential monitoring after administration of 726 820 doses.

CONCLUSIONS:

Safety findings for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from 3 United States monitoring systems in children ages 5 to 11 years show that most reported adverse events were mild and no safety signals were observed in active surveillance. VAERS reporting rates of myocarditis after dose 2 in this age group were substantially lower than those observed among adolescents ages 12 to 15 years. ...