The New Yorker:

The coronavirus may no longer be a leading danger to our health. That doesn’t mean it can’t hurt us, or that we don’t need to protect ourselves.

By Dhruv Khullar

On Tuesday, in a fifty-eight-second video posted on X, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, made a remarkable announcement: under his watch, he said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer advise healthy children and pregnant women to get vaccinated against covid-19. For decades, the C.D.C. has based its vaccination policy in large part on the recommendations of a panel of experts, who carefully review data about vaccine safety and effectiveness. The panel was already in the process of updating their recommendations, but Kennedy apparently preëmpted them; the American Academy of Pediatrics said that it had not been consulted, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement noting that coronavirus infection during pregnancy “can be catastrophic,” expressing grave concerns about the health of mothers and children. Kennedy, who in 2021 called covid shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made” and urged the government to revoke their authorization, said in the clip that he “couldn’t be more pleased.”

After Kennedy’s announcement, the C.D.C. seemed to split the metaphorical baby in an update to its immunization schedule. In the new guidelines for children, the entry for covid vaccines now says, “See Notes.” The notes explain, “Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances.” Below that, a timeline for vaccinating children against covid appears. Meanwhile, the agency’s position on covid vaccines for pregnant women is “No Guidance/Not Applicable” In these updates, the C.D.C. appeared at pains to neither undermine its support for the vaccines nor directly contradict its boss’s boss. The agency may have succeeded at that—but an exemplar of clear public-health communication it was not.

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