The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has updated its immunisation schedule, scrapping the universal Covid-19 vaccine recommendation in favour of a more conservative approach.
Starting today (7 October), the agency will no longer recommend the blanket routine administration of Covid-19 booster jabs. Instead, it proposes that members of the public should consult a doctor, nurse or pharmacist before obtaining any approved Covid-19 shots.
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The CDC also noted that the clinical decision to vaccinate against Covid-19 should be “based on patient characteristics,” such as risk factors for underlying disease.
This update to the immunisation schedule was approved by the CDC’s acting director, Jim O’Neill, who stated that “informed consent is back” in the US.
He also claimed that the CDC’s choice to recommend Covid-19 boosters as a blanket rule “deterred healthcare providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccinations”.
O’Neill makes this claim despite the proven safety of the marketed Covid-19 vaccines, which prevented 14.4 million deaths between 2021 and 2022, according to data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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By GlobalDataIt appears that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still echoes this positive sentiment towards Covid vaccines to some extent, as both Moderna and partners BioNTech & Pfizer recently got the green light for their mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine formula updates.
Varicella plus MMR vaccine under the microscope
Meanwhile, the CDC has also ceased to recommend the combined use of the varicella (chickenpox) and measles, mumps & rubella (MMR) jabs, citing an increased risk of febrile seizures as the main driver of this change.
According to data shared by the agency, toddlers between the ages of 12–23 months are at increased risk of this type of seizure, which is brought on by high body temperature, seven to ten days after vaccination with the combination.
The CDC also claims that this risk is mitigated by separate administration of jabs, which are both on the routine immunisation schedule.
While Stephanie Kurdach, infectious disease analyst at GlobalData, believes that while this recommendation “puts patient safety first,” she notes that the development could come with repercussions.
“By eliminating the combination vaccine, you do run the risk of lower patient compliance, as parents may be hesitant to have their child receive more than one vaccination on the same visit,” Kurdach said.
She also noted that compliance may be impacted if parents choose to bring in their child for separate visits for each vaccination. This is unlike the combination shot, which “ensured that adequate coverage was obtained for each disease simultaneously”.
Controversy around the US vaccine landscape
Despite the availability of clinical evidence supporting the safety of Covid-19, MMR and varicella vaccines, sentiments towards these jabs have been souring within the Trump administration.
This was, in part, driven by US Human and Health Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr, a staunch critic of vaccines.
During his time in the White House, Kennedy has warned against the perceived dangers of certain immunisations, while cutting funding to development programmes centring around mRNA jabs, firing all 17 members of the CDC’s previous vaccine committee, and then replacing them back in June.
Under his leadership, the FDA has also restricted the use cases of Covid-19 vaccines to either those aged 65 and up or people with at least one underlying condition that could make them susceptible to severe Covid-19.
However, Kennedy is not the only member of the administration to voice concerns around the efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines, with President Donald Trump demanding that pharma companies further demonstrate the efficacy of their Covid-19 drugs.
While the Trump administration continues to warn the public of the dangers of vaccines, not all are in agreement, with Senators getting into a fiery battle with the health secretary over his proven false claims on Covid-19 deaths and the dismantling of the CDC’s vaccine committee.
