Traveling families need the assurance
UPDATE June 10, 2025: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary, on Monday fired all 17 members of the advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying that the move would restore the public’s trust in vaccines. (reported by New York Times)…. The decision directly contradicts a promise Mr. Kennedy made to Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, during his confirmation hearings, when he said he would not alter the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” Senator Cassidy wrote on X.
Susan Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement highly critical of Kennedy’s action:
“The American Academy of Pediatrics is deeply troubled and alarmed by Secretary Kennedy’s mass firing of all 17 experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. This unprecedented action, against the backdrop of contradictory announcements from the Administration in recent days about vaccines, will cause even more confusion and uncertainty for families.
“We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines. Creating confusion around proven vaccines endangers families’ health and contributes to the spread of preventable diseases. This move undermines the trust pediatricians have built over decades with our patients and leaves us without critical scientific expertise we rely on.
Children and families must be able to access the immunizations they need to stay healthy. Our vaccine infrastructure must include this critical step of nonpartisan, expert review and discussion of the science and clinical recommendations for individual vaccines. Families and children will be the ones to pay the price for this decision.”
By Andy Yemma
You may have heard or read just very recently that Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources in the Trump Administration, had ordered the discontinuance of annual COVID-19 Vaccine doses for everyone except those 65 or older and those at risk because of immune-compromised conditions. This would have included kids up to age 18.
According to The New York Times, this caused an uproar among pediatricians and other doctors, not to mention among families with children. In our experience families who travel with kids are at a high risk for contracting any kind of virus on the planet!
And so are their parents and caregivers after the kids (whose immune systems are just getting developed) tend to infect anyone else they come in contact with.
If you don’t believe me, ask any (not anti-vax indoctrinated) parent or grandparent or caregiver of a young kid, maybe even a teenager how many colds (aka viruses) they’ve had lately.
So today the Centers for Disease control overruled Kennedy’s edict.
Kudos to the CDC!
If Kennedy’s edict had taken effect (and we still don’t know the full outcome of this because of all the policy flip-flops in the current administration), parents who wanted to get their kids vaccinated, whether traveling or not, would have had to pay full freight – (could have been a couple of hundred dollars per kid, depending on the prescription and pharmacy). Now they just have to consult with their family doctor and decide whether the immunization is needed and will insurance pay (it should).
Susan Kressly, MD, FAAP, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, weighed in on this:
“After confusing, mixed messages from leaders at Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week, we are relieved to see today that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its schedules for child and adolescent immunizations to allow families to maintain the choice to immunize their children against Covid in consultation with their doctor.
“Including the vaccine on the schedule means the vaccine will be covered by insurance. This means many children and adolescents can access a vaccine to protect them from some of the serious complications of this disease, including long Covid. However, the deeply flawed process to reach the recommendation raises serious concerns about the stability of the nation’s immunization infrastructure and commitment by federal leaders to make sure families can access critical immunizations, whether for Covid or other infectious diseases.
“American families deserve better. They deserve clear messages from all involved in their health, that are based on facts so they can continue to benefit from the success story of vaccines.
“Important decisions about vaccine recommendations should be made in a transparent, evidence-based process that includes input from public health experts, medical professionals, and experts in immunology and infectious diseases. That is not what happened in this case. Instead, this week, leaders within HHS, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rolled out conflicting, confusing and incomplete recommendations, with no coordination with the groups of physicians who would be tasked with implementing them, and no explanation of the evidence used to reach their conclusions.
“The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been considering a move to a risk-based recommendation for Covid vaccines to guide doctors and families. The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases will also be examining the evidence to determine the Academy’s recommendations, as is our usual process. While the shared clinical decision-making model in the updated immunization schedule preserves families’ choice, this model has consistently proven challenging to implement because it lacks clear guidance for the conversations between a doctor and a family. Doctors and families need straightforward, evidence-based guidance, not vague, impractical frameworks.
“It is also important to preserve the ability for health care workers to access Covid vaccine to protect themselves, their families and their patients. Pregnant women must also be able to access the vaccine. We know that pregnant women are at significantly higher risk of serious illness due to Covid infection, and vaccinating during pregnancy also helps protect their newborn infants.
“The AAP urges our nation’s public health leaders to return to a process that is transparent, based in science, inclusive of medical expertise, and focused on the needs of children and families. The AAP also urges families to continue to talk with their pediatricians about their child’s immunizations. For many families, the Covid vaccine will remain an important way they protect their child and family from this disease and its complications, including long Covid. Pediatricians are ready to have those conversations with families to keep children healthy so they can thrive.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.