Ahead of the rollout of this fall’s new COVID-19 vaccines, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) work group deliberated over whether to recommend shots for all eligible Americans or just the most vulnerable groups.
Other countries such as the United Kingdom have opted for the latter approach, offering fall shots only to those at highest risk, such as seniors and those with underlying medical conditions.
Ultimately, a panel of the CDC’s outside experts voted in favor of broad recommendations for the shots. CDC data revealed that healthy, young, and unboosted Americans are still being hospitalized due to the virus.
“The work group did not enter its deliberations assuming that a universal vaccination strategy was the obvious policy choice,” said Dr. Matthew Daley, head of the COVID-19 vaccines work group within the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. However, the data led them to that conclusion.
The updated shots, which were greenlighted by the Food and Drug Administration, have been reformulated to target the newer XBB variants of the virus.
All Americans, including children as young as 6 months old who are eligible for the revised shots, are now being urged to get vaccinated before the fall and winter virus season.
“CDC is now recommending updated COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 6 months and older to better protect you and your loved ones,” said CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen.
The work group started with a blank slate to reevaluate vaccine recommendations for this fall. They asked the CDC to gather data on the risk of severe disease from the virus in healthy children and young adults.
While seniors and babies under 6 months old have the highest rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the CDC’s data showed that otherwise healthy Americans of all ages were still being hospitalized. For example, 23% of hospitalizations among school-age children ages 5 to 11 were in kids with no underlying conditions. The majority of children experiencing severe COVID-19 had not received a booster shot and many were unvaccinated.
Only one member of the 14-member panel voted against the universal recommendation, expressing concern over limited data on the benefits and risks of the vaccine for children and healthier young adults. They cited data indicating that the benefits of the shots outweigh the risks, even for those at higher risk of myocarditis, a rare side effect.
According to the CDC, myocarditis usually responds well to treatment and the risk of developing it from a COVID infection is higher than from the vaccine.
The work group concluded that tailored recommendations would be impractical to implement and could create barriers to vaccination for those at greatest risk. They also highlighted that insurance coverage of the shots is not directly tied to the panel’s recommendations.
Although all Americans are recommended to get vaccinated, the promotion of the shots will still be focused on those at the highest risk of severe disease.
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