President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., meanwhile, have fired or replaced top CDC officials, stripped away vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and children, replaced every member on the federal immunization advisory committee and slashed funding for mRNA research.
Ousted CDC chief Susan Monarez, who was recently fired after less than a month on the job, warned senators on Wednesday morning that Kennedy and his newly stocked team of advisers with a history of anti-vaccine statements are taking the country’s public health system to “a very dark place.”
Typically, the CDC sets vaccine recommendations based on the available data, which insurers use to set reimbursement guidelines concerning which vaccines they’ll pay for. The push by California and other Western states comes in anticipation of the Trump administration’s new federal vaccine recommendations, which are expected to land later this week when the CDC advisory panel meets.
California’s new vaccine schedule preempts the CDC’s guidance, recommending COVID vaccines to all children 6 to 23 months old; any children under 18 with risk factors or who haven’t been immunized before; and anybody who is pregnant, planning pregnancy, postpartum or lactating. It also opens up immunization to any adult who chooses. The guidelines were developed based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“I’ve talked to so many people who are married to somebody who’s at high risk. But they can’t get vaccinated because they’re in good health. And that’s just absurd,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “And so I think California has really fixed that loophole there.”
Health insurers regulated by California are required to cover the state’s winter vaccine recommendations and have up to 15 days to comply with the new guidelines, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told KQED.
