(My guest editorial in CHD’s the Defender today 6/3/2025)

Last week’s change to the CDC COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy children drew criticism from mainstream media. But with only 12.8% of children up to date on COVID-19 shots, it’s clear the public has already moved on — the CDC is simply catching up.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dropped its recommendation that healthy children receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The shot technically remains on the childhood schedule, but it is no longer federally “recommended.”

Instead, the vaccine is now classified under “shared clinical decision-making,” meaning families and their doctors make the decision together. The government no longer takes a position for or against.

The media and medical establishment responded with outrage. Headlines from outlets like The New York Times and CNN accused the CDC of defying its own advisory process and rebelling against U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Much of the uproar centered on the timing: the decision came just before a scheduled meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

According to an April 16 CNN report, three-quarters of ACIP members favored removing the recommendation.

However, in a move signaling they were no longer willing to outsource public health decisions to an unelected advisory body, Kennedy, along with Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, acted before the committee could vote.

And yet, the numbers tell a different story. According to data (slide 45) presented at the April 2025 ACIP meeting, only 12.8% of children are currently up to date on COVID-19 shots.

The public had already moved on. The CDC simply caught up, albeit without the formal recommendation of the ACIP.

Who’s still pushing COVID vaccines for children?

If only 13% of children are receiving the vaccine, who’s demanding its continued universal recommendation?

The answer: the vaccine establishment.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is a private trade group. Most pediatric practices rely on revenue from well-child visits, a major component of which is vaccine administration.

In some cases, insurers offer bonuses or rebates tied to compliance targets. The financial incentives are real — and rarely acknowledged.

The AAP also publishes the “Red Book,” its definitive manual for pediatric infectious disease management. The final section includes the AAP’s own table of contraindications and precautions, which closely parallels ACIP’s — but remains a separate, proprietary standard.

In that context, the AAP’s continued promotion of the COVID-19 vaccine for all children may have as much (or more) to do with the financial success of its members as it does with public health, or the health of individual patients.

What RFK Jr. actually did

The change to the COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for children didn’t come from nowhere. On April 23, Kennedy publicly stated that his administration was considering withdrawing the CDC’s recommendation for the COVID-19 shot for children.

Two days later, I filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Samara Cardenas, which argued that physicians should not be forced to order, stock or promote a shot they did not believe in — especially when the CDC’s recommendation triggered mandates under the agency’s Vaccines for Children Program and Medicaid.

But Kennedy has also repeatedly stated that he would not take vaccines away from families who want them. The CDC’s recent shift honors both of those commitments.

The shot remains technically “on the schedule,” and as such, it should still be covered by private insurance and government supply programs, like the Vaccines for Children Program.

The CDC just no longer recommends it for healthy children.

That’s not merely a symbolic change. It changes the landscape. Doctors no longer have to robotically offer the vaccine. They can now exercise clinical judgment.

And more importantly, it is a signal.

Why it matters

The distinction between a CDC recommendation and a private group’s advice matters deeply. The CDC’s stance largely determines what states mandate, what schools require, what insurers pay for and what government programs enforce.

Now, the CDC has stepped back. The AAP, by contrast, has doubled down — revealing where the pressure is really coming from: the trade group and the academic infectious disease mafia.

But as indicated, families have already made their choice: 12.8% and probably declining.

This is not the end of the fight. But it is a milestone.

The CDC didn’t contradict Kennedy — it implemented his policies. The shot remains available for those who want it. But government programs no longer force providers to push it.

That’s medical freedom in action.

The COVID-19 vaccine now joins four other vaccines in the shared clinical decision-making category:

• Meningococcal B (MenB, ages 16-23)
• Hepatitis B (in adults over 60 with diabetes)
• Human papillomavirus (HPV, ages 27-45)
• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20/21, in adults 65 or older)

This is not the end of the fight. But it is a milestone. A federal agency has just ceded ground to parental discretion and medical judgment. That matters.

I’ve worked with or for RFK Jr. on several legal cases. He is a master strategist. I’m beginning to see his long game. It will be transformational.

Meanwhile, the Cardenas lawsuit continues, in part to see what changes will be made to the CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program, and to keep an eye on the CDC.

Stay tuned for what’s next!

Rick Jaffe, Esq.