The Trump Administration has failed to protect public health.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 16, 2025

Contact for People’s CDC: info@peoplescdc.org

People Need Vaccine Access. Public Health Experts Denounce Health and Human Services for Restricting Access to COVID Vaccines.

The Trump Administration has failed to protect public health by imposing barriers to COVID vaccines.

Washington DC – Public health experts and community members comprising the public health and health justice advocacy group People’s CDC condemn the recent restrictions placed on COVID vaccinations by currently appointed US public health officials, whose nominations we previously opposed. Removal of recommendations for pregnant people and children were announced on May 27, 2025, by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, both of whom have extensive track records of opposing vaccinations and advocating for dangerous mass infection policies.¹ We also condemn the new unnecessary requirements that have been imposed by the FDA on the approval of COVID vaccines for people under age 65, which were published on May 20, 2025, by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and FDA CBER Director Vinay Prasad.² The scientific evidence supporting vaccine efficacy and safety is irrefutable: Receiving a COVID vaccination within the last year reduces the risk of symptoms, severe disease, disability, and death for people of all ages, including previously healthy people. These restrictions also create immense confusion among the public on the usefulness of COVID vaccines, and undermine confidence in vaccines more broadly. These restrictions are based on misinformation, and they put our communities at risk— and will undoubtedly lead to more restrictions on other life saving vaccines.

Further, we condemn the closed and undemocratic The development of vaccine policies must be open and transparent, with opportunities for the public to provide written and oral public comments as well as input from the appropriate expert advisory committees, including FDA’s Vaccines and Biological Products Advisory Committee, VRBPAC, and CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, ACIP. The new restricted vaccine approval policy has apparently already been implemented in the latest FDA approvals (Novavax’s Nuvaxovid and Moderna’s mNexspike). Under the new policy, COVID vaccines are not available to people under age 65 unless they have a high risk medical condition. Fall 2025 flu vaccine strain selection occurred within a closed-door meeting without input from the usual range of expert advisors on VRBPAC’s roster.³ The FDA has limited the public’s right to provide their input through public comment. Opportunities for public input as well as open discussions through broadcasted public meetings are essential for public trust in vaccines and for trust in our public health institutions. America’s democracy requires true transparency and accountability in our trusted public health institutions.

Current guidelines for COVID vaccinations have already been weakened in the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule,⁴ and recommendations for COVID vaccination during pregnancy have been removed.⁵ Limiting access through these revised recommendations with a focus on “shared clinical decision-making” for healthy children creates harmful and unnecessary barriers to vaccination, potentially impacting both vaccine access at clinics and pharmacies as well as insurance coverage. Pregnancy is a known high-risk condition for severe COVID and is listed as such by the CDC as of May 30, 2025.⁶ Vaccination of pregnant people is also important to protect newborns, who benefit from maternal antibodies. Infants six months of age or younger born to unvaccinated birthing parents represent the majority of infant hospitalizations.⁷ Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have released statements criticizing the new policy.

The benefits of COVID vaccination apply to people of all ages, including children and adults including those without specific high risk medical conditions. COVID continues to spread within our communities, and vaccination reduces the risk of symptomatic disease, severe disease, disability, and death.⁸ The safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines have been established over many clinical trials and real-world monitoring, including both the original formulations as well as multiple strain updates.⁹ The update process in previous years (2022-2024) allowed the use of both clinical data from existing formulations and nonclinical data from the updated formulation.¹⁰,¹¹ This COVID vaccine variant update process mirrored the routine process for seasonal influenza vaccine strain updates. This established process has provided the necessary timeframe to minimize delays in order to provide a better match to currently circulating variants.

All COVID vaccine updates must be made available for people of all ages, 6 months and up, at least twice a year. Both children and adults remain at risk of both short- and long-term impacts from COVID infections.¹²,¹³ Access to vaccination at least once a year for all ages is needed to provide the greatest benefit, as immunity wanes over time.¹⁴,¹⁵,¹⁶ Restricting vaccine access to certain age groups or people with specific high risk medical conditions creates barriers to vaccination for high-risk groups, leading to additional documentation or extra clinic visits.

Anti-vax, anti-science, and anti-public health influences have no place in our trusted public health institutions. Denying everyday people access to safe and effective vaccines harms all of us. Vaccine uptake is already far too low because of barriers to access. Recent federal cuts have included cuts to research into vaccine hesitancy as well as ending the “Wild to Mild” CDC flu vaccine campaign.¹⁷17 US federal health agencies must reverse these decisions and instead strengthen and expand vaccine campaigns as well as ensure free and affordable access to vaccinations.

References

RFK Jr says no COVID vaccines for healthy children, pregnant women | CIDRAP. May 27, 2025. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/rfk-jr-says-no-covid-vaccines-healthy-children-pregnant-women ↩︎
Prasad V, Makary MA. An Evidence-Based Approach to Covid-19 Vaccination. N Engl J Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMsb2506929 ↩︎
Dillinger K, Goodman B. After canceling meeting of independent advisers, FDA issues 2025-26 flu vaccine recommendations. CNN. March 14, 2025. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/health/fda-flu-vaccine-recommendations ↩︎
CDC. Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule by Age. Vaccines & Immunizations. May 31, 2025. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescent-age.html ↩︎
CDC. Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule, United States, 2025. May 28, 2025. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/downloads/adult/adult-combined-schedule.pdf ↩︎
COVID-19 Vaccination for Women Who Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding | COVID-19 | CDC. May 30, 2025. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250530011222/https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/pregnant-or-breastfeeding.html ↩︎
Havers FP. COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations and Maternal Vaccination Among Infants Aged 6 Months — COVID-NET, 12 States, October 2022–April 2024. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7338a1 ↩︎
Jenco M, Editor SN. AAP: Removal of COVID vaccines from immunization schedules for healthy children, pregnant people disregards process, increases risk. Published online May 27, 2025. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/32325/AAP-Removal-of-COVID-vaccines-from-immunization ↩︎
ACOG Statement on HHS Recommendations Regarding the COVID Vaccine During Pregnancy. Accessed May 31, 2025. https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2025/05/acog-statement-on-hhs-recommendations-regarding-the-covid-vaccine-during-pregnancy ↩︎
Office of the Commissioner. FDA Approves and Authorizes Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants. FDA. August 23, 2024. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-and-authorizes-updated-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-better-protect-against-currently ↩︎
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines for Use as a Booster Dose in Younger Age Groups | FDA. October 13, 2022. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20221013002424/https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-moderna-and-pfizer-biontech-bivalent-covid-19-vaccines ↩︎
Fang Z, Ahrnsbrak R, Rekito A. Evidence Mounts That About 7% of US Adults Have Had Long COVID. JAMA. Published online June 7, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11370 ↩︎
Yousaf AR. Notes from the Field: Surveillance for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children — United States, 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2024;73. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7310a2 ↩︎
Link-Gelles R. Effectiveness of COVID-19 (2023-2024 Formula) vaccines. https://www.fda.gov/media/179140/download ↩︎
Wu N, Joyal-Desmarais K, Vieira AM, et al. COVID-19 boosters versus primary series: update to a living review. Lancet Respir Med. 2023;11(10):e87-e88. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00265-5 ↩︎
Menegale F, Manica M, Zardini A, et al. Evaluation of Waning of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine–Induced Immunity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(5):e2310650. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.10650 ↩︎
CDC. New Wild to Mild Campaign Drives Key Message to Tame Flu and Reset Expectations. Influenza (Flu). January 31, 2025. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/whats-new/2023-2024-new-campaign-wild-to-mild.html ↩︎