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RFK Jr drops Covid-19 boosters for kids and pregnant women from CDC list

www.theguardian.com RFK Jr drops Covid-19 boosters for kids and pregnant women from CDC list

The move ends the CDC’s booster recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women, bypassing norms

RFK Jr drops Covid-19 boosters for kids and pregnant women from CDC list

The move ends the CDC’s booster recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women, bypassing norms

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would remove Covid-19 booster shots from its recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women.

Legal experts said the Trump administration appointee’s decision, which Kennedy announced on social media, circumvented the CDC’s authority to recommend such changes – and that it is unprecedented for a health secretary to unilaterally make such a decision.

Removing the booster shot from the recommended immunization schedule could make it more difficult to access – and it could affect private insurers’ willingness to cover the vaccine. About half of Americans receive healthcare through a private insurance company.

Such a unilateral change is highly unusual if not unprecedented for a typical US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary. And it could leave the HHS department open to litigation, said one vaccine law expert.

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