AAP and CDC issue conflicting guidance on child COVID vaccination

For the first time in three decades, the nation’s leading pediatric association and the federal public health agency have issued conflicting guidance on COVID-19 vaccination for children, setting up a period of uncertainty for clinicians, parents and insurers. This week the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended universal COVID-19 vaccination for children ages 6 months to 23 months and advised vaccination for older children in certain circumstances. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, following policy changes at the Department of Health and Human Services, has moved to a shared clinical decisionmaking approach that leaves vaccination for healthy children to discussions between families and clinicians.

The split followed a summer of rapid policy change at HHS. The administration removed long-standing advisers from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and curtailed the formal roles of several medical societies. HHS officials and supporters of those changes say the agency is pursuing greater scrutiny and transparency in vaccine policy. Critics say the reorganization has politicized technical review and driven a widening gap between federal and...