RFK Jr. questions universal Covid shots for American children

Ike Swetlitz and Hadriana Lowenkron, Bloomberg News on Apr 22, 2025

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. questioned the need for all children to get Covid shots amid reports that the U.S. government is considering revoking its current vaccine recommendations.

“The recommendation for children was always dubious,” Kennedy told Fox News when asked to comment on considerations by the Trump administration to modify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood vaccine schedule.

Changing the vaccine schedule, which currently recommends the Covid immunization for children as young as six months old, would be Kennedy’s most notable move yet on vaccines, which he has long criticized. Kennedy has supported debunked theories linking some shots with the development of autism and threatened legal action against the Food and Drug Administration if it approved a Covid shot for young children in 2022, when he was chair of Children’s Health Defense.

“President Trump doesn’t believe that anybody should get mandatory vaccines,” Kennedy said on Tuesday. “People should make that choice for themselves.”

In the U.K. and European Union, Covid shots are generally reserved for children aged five years old or over, or those with other health issues that can lead to increased risks of severe Covid.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has supported vaccines for some children. In 2021, he wrote in an opinion piece in MedPage Today saying that children who are overweight or have a “pre-existing condition” should be vaccinated.

“No final decision has been made,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told Bloomberg. Politico first reported the Trump administration’s considerations.

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(With assistance from Madison Muller and Rachel Cohrs Zhang.)