Federal officials have revealed their plans to only approve the updated COVID-19 vaccines for use among the elderly and other select groups – a change from when the vaccine first rolled out to slow the pandemic five years ago.
The change was announced by the Food and Drug Administration, which falls under Health and Human Services. While Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t have a direct role in the new change, it exemplifies how the vaccine skeptic is reshaping how Americans fight diseases.
Kennedy was a controversial choice for President Donald Trump, mainly because of his views on vaccinations.
He has previously spread false claims that vaccines cause autism, and in 2021, he called the COVID shot the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
Against this backdrop, the FDA announced its plans Tuesday to only approve updated COVID vaccines for those over the age of 65.
Americans who are at least 6 months old and have at least one health condition that puts them at greater risk of severe illness will also be approved under the agency’s new rule, slated to begin this fall.
It’s unclear if Americans under the age of 65 who are relatively healthy would still have access to the COVID vaccine, or if it is available to them, whether their insurance companies would cover it.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, the agency’s head of vaccines, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine when announcing the new COVID shot limitations, “The FDA’s new Covid-19 philosophy represents a balance of regulatory flexibility and a commitment to gold-standard science.
“The FDA will approve vaccines for high-risk persons and, at the same time, demand robust, gold-standard data on persons at low risk.”
The new move has been criticized by those concerned about Americans who want the vaccine but don’t fit the FDA’s new criteria.
Dr. Anna Durbin, director of the Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins University, told The New York Times, “This is overly restrictive and will deny many people who want to be vaccinated a vaccine.”
The Independent has reached out to the HHS via email for comment.
Who will be approved for the COVID-19 vaccine?
- People over the age of 65
- People over 6 months old with at least one health condition that puts them at greater risk of severe illness
- People with conditions including asthma, diabetes, cancer and obesity
- Pregnant women
