CDC Revises COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance: Healthy Children No Longer Recommended for Routine Shots

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced a significant policy update, no longer recommending routine COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children. This marks a departure from their earlier stance of advocating annual vaccinations for everyone over six months old.

The change was publicized by the Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., on the social media platform X, citing insufficient data to support vaccination for healthy children. This decision aligns with his longstanding skepticism about the necessity of COVID-19 vaccines for children, whom he has repeatedly described as facing minimal risk from the virus.

For many children, COVID-19 infections tend to be mild or asymptomatic, often limited to symptoms such as a runny nose or cough that resolve within a few days. However, some children do experience severe illness and, in rare cases, fatalities. Additionally, over one million American children have reportedly developed long COVID, a condition involving persistent symptoms following infection.

This divergence in risk assessment fuels ongoing medical debates over the degree of threat COVID-19 poses to children and whether annual vaccinations remain warranted.

Experts argue that children might derive less benefit from yearly vaccinations than adults, as their immune systems may retain vaccine-induced protection for longer periods. Furthermore, many American children already possess some immunity through prior infections or earlier vaccinations.

Proponents of annual vaccination stress that immunity from vaccines or previous infections wanes over time, especially as new variants emerge, suggesting that additional doses could enhance protection. Emerging evidence also indicates that vaccination may reduce the risk of developing long COVID, though these findings require further validation.

“We know COVID-19 persists. It is preventable, and vaccines present minimal side effects,” said Chris Forrest, a pediatric professor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Therefore, I believe vaccination offers a clearly positive benefit.”

This added layer of protection may be particularly vital for children with underlying health conditions, those living with elderly family members, or children at higher risk of severe disease.

Ultimately, doctors note that vaccination decisions often come down to how families perceive their children's risk. Here's what the data reveal.

Reliable statistics on the proportion of mild pediatric COVID-19 cases are challenging to obtain, but medical professionals agree that most children experience few or no symptoms.

Some of the most comprehensive data come from 2020, before widespread immunity from vaccines or infections was established in children. A review of studies from that year found that approximately 4 percent of children worldwide with COVID-19 developed severe symptoms, including difficulty breathing, high fever, and chest pain.

Children generally face a low risk of hospitalization from COVID-19. Between September 2020 and April 2024, around 234,000 children in the U.S. were hospitalized due to infections. Despite milder illness trends over time, children and adolescents still accounted for about 4 percent of COVID-related hospitalizations from October 2024 to March 2025.

The highest risk group comprises infants under six months old. From October 2022 to April 2024, babies in this age range were more likely to be hospitalized than any other age group except adults aged 75 and older.

COVID-19-related deaths among children remain extremely rare.

In April, Secretary Kennedy stated on Fox News that children with significant underlying health issues might face a slight risk from COVID-19, while the majority do not.

However, CDC data from July 2023 to March 2024 showed that half of the children hospitalized with COVID-19 had no preexisting medical conditions.

It is true that underlying conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and chronic lung diseases increase hospitalization risk. Children with these and other health issues will likely continue to be recommended for vaccination.

Yet, the increased risk is notable. Research indicates that young individuals with at least one underlying condition are 28 percent more likely to require intensive care due to COVID-19 than those without such conditions, and face a 125 percent higher risk of death from the virus. The risk escalates with the number of underlying health problems.

A review of 183 pediatric COVID-19 deaths between 2020 and 2022 found that 32 percent of those children had no other illnesses.

Secretary Kennedy also announced that the CDC will no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination for healthy pregnant women, despite their higher risk of severe illness from the virus.

Vaccinating pregnant women has been shown to reduce the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in their infants. Babies under six months face higher hospitalization rates partly because their immune systems are fragile and they are too young to be vaccinated.

Kennedy has claimed that COVID-19 vaccines have “significant associations” with certain types of heart inflammation, such as myocarditis or pericarditis. While these conditions have been linked to vaccines, particularly in adolescent males, cases remain rare and mostly mild. An analysis of nearly four million booster recipients identified 28 probable or confirmed myocarditis cases, all of which resolved quickly.

Vaccine labels include warnings about the small risk of heart inflammation for young males. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instructed Pfizer and Moderna to expand these warnings to include males aged 16 to 25, citing data indicating approximately 38 cases of heart inflammation per million doses in this group.

Studies consistently show that the virus itself poses a much greater risk of causing heart inflammation. One review found the risk of myocarditis after infection to be more than seven times higher than after vaccination.

Estimates of long COVID prevalence among children vary widely. Even at the lowest estimates, about 1 percent of U.S. children—roughly one million—have experienced long COVID, broadly defined as symptoms lasting or emerging at least three months after infection. Many affected children had only mild or asymptomatic initial infections.

Long COVID in children commonly causes fatigue, dizziness, breathing difficulties, and problems with concentration and sleep.