Media Blatantly Misinforms the Public on COVID Vaccination

In a video post on the social media platform X on May 27, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. stated:

The COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule.” He added, “Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.¹

Standing next to Secretary Kennedy, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, added, “The ends today. It’s common sense and it’s good science.” Standing to Kennedy’s other side, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Marty Makarty, MD, MPH continued, “There’s no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.”¹

Not Recommending is Not the Same as Prohibiting

In other words, very simply, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend annual COVID shots for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. Neither Kennedy nor Bhattacharya nor Makarty said that healthy children and healthy pregnant women would be prohibited from receiving these biologics. Merely that COVID shots for healthy children and healthy pregnant women have been removed from the CDC’s recommended vaccination schedule.

According to an HHS spokesperson:

The old COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children under 18 and for pregnant women have been removed from the CDC vaccine schedule. The CDC and HHS encourage individuals to talk with their healthcare provider about any personal medical decision.²

In what would seem to be a cynical effort to create confusion among the public and an appearance of friction between Secretary Kennedy and the CDC, numerous mainstream newspapers and magazines have recently published articles suggesting the agency is engaged in some sort of open revolt against Kennedy by contradicting his new directive about the COVID shots for healthy children and pregnant women.

The Washington Post published one titled “Contradicting RFK Jr., CDC keeps recommending covid vaccine for kids.” Axios wrote “CDC contradicts RFK Jr. on COVID vaccine for kids.” Politico wrote “New Covid shot recommendations appear to contradict Kennedy.” USA Today was perhaps most blatant of all with its “CDC still recommends childhood COVID vaccines, despite RFK announcement.”^{3 4 5 6}

Meanwhile, the New York Times published an article disingenuously titled “CDC Contradicts Kennedy and Keeps Advice That Children May Get Covid Shots.” No, the CDC did not contradict Kennedy.⁷

Not all mainstream media outlets have been guilty of spreading this “misinformation.” Fox News, for example, published an accurately titled piece: “CDC removes COVID vaccine recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women.” So did Healthline: “CDC, FDA Limit Access to COVID Shots for Healthy Adults, Kids, and Pregnant People.” As did the New York Post: “CDC nixes language recommending COVID-19 shot for kids.”^{8 9 10}

The truth is that, while the CDC is no longer recommending that healthy children and healthy pregnant women get annual COVID shots, the agency states that these individuals “may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgement of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances.”¹¹ As NPR correctly reported:

Now, the CDC’s vaccine schedule recommends COVID vaccines for children through shared clinical decision-making — that is, if a doctor and a patient decide together that it makes sense. And there’s no recommendation for pregnant women to get COVID vaccines.¹²

That’s different from recommending that one should get the shots, as had previously been the case. But there is a subtlety to it that many Americans might not fully appreciate and understand, which is why it is notably irresponsible for the media to deliberately report this story inaccurately.

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