Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s advisory panel has issued new COVID-19 vaccine guidelines following a panel that voted to remove all universal recommendations for annual COVID-19 vaccine shots for anyone 6 months and older.
The panel also recommended that children younger than 4 years old not receive the four-component measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine and instead receive separate immunizations for MMR and for varicella, or chickenpox.
The committee unanimously voted to suggest that individuals decide for themselves whether to get the COVID-19 vaccine, meaning individuals won’t need a doctor’s note to get vaccinated.
The votes follow the Food and Drug Administration’s recent narrowing of COVID-19 vaccine approvals to a smaller group of Americans – those over 65 or with underlying medical conditions.
Many members of the panel – selected by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – questioned the vaccine’s benefit but ultimately voted that most Americans can still have access, ideally following a discussion with their healthcare provider, although that is not a requirement.
The panel said people should know COVID-19 vaccines are most beneficial for people at risk for severe illness based on CDC definitions and least beneficial for otherwise healthy individuals.
CDC’s endorsement makes ACIP’s guidance official federal policy, triggering no-cost insurance coverage for most private and public insurance plans as well as access via the Vaccines for Children programme.
CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neill said in a statement, ‘Informed consent is back. CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred healthcare providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.’
ACIP focused on contentious COVID-19 vaccine topics, including alleged DNA alterations by mRNA vaccines, assertions that mRNA vaccines don’t work as intended and potential connections between the vaccines and conditions such as birth defects and cancer.
The group also focused on the long-established risk of febrile seizures after combined vaccination with the MMRV vaccine in younger children.
In a separate vote, members decided not to suggest that states require a prescription for the COVID-19 vaccine, with many members saying this would create unnecessary barriers.
And in another separate action, members voted that CDC communicate clear risks about COVID-19 vaccines – materials that states can choose to give to patients when they get vaccinated that list at least six of those risks.
In a presentation that countered the majority views of the workgroup, workgroup member Henry Bernstein said the need for a prescription will ‘create unnecessary steps to receiving a vaccine and will not effectively target’ high-risk groups.
A member of ACIP, which is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations committee, and epidemiologist Catherine M. Stein, who has previously been openly critical of the U.S. response to COVID-19, stated, ‘I believe the segment of the population that is underinsured has a lack of access to health care; they’re going to be unable to get a prescription, and those are the people that are at highest risk for a lot of these comorbid conditions.