COVID vaccine changes confuse and upset some parents and families

Loryn Competti was watching the news with her husband at their home in Cincinnati when she heard about the new federal policy about who should get a COVID vaccine.

“I started crying,” says Competti. “I was like, ‘Am I really not going to be able to get this vaccine? Why? Why?’ That’s absolutely terrifying.”

Competti, 30, is about five months pregnant, which means she’s at high risk for serious complications from COVID. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dropped its recommendation that healthy pregnant women routinely get vaccinated against the virus.

That means many insurance companies may not pay for the shots for them anymore.

“I don’t want to get COVID while I’m pregnant,” Competti says. “I don’t want it to hurt my child. I don’t want to have a premature birth. I just know that there’s complications that come along with it.”

She also knows that the most certain way to protect her newborn son is by getting vaccinated herself so she can share her antibodies in her womb. Newborn babies are too young to get a shot themselves.

Competti is just one of many people worried about a flurry of changes implemented by the Trump administration in recent weeks affecting access to the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women, kids with no other health problems, and adults under 65 with no risk factors.

The CDC has dropped its recommendation that healthy children routinely continue getting vaccinated and is now saying parents should talk to their children’s doctors about getting the shots.

And, starting with new boosters coming this fall, the Food and Drug Administration will now only approve the shots for people who are at high risk for serious complications from COVID because they are age 65 or older or have risk factors for health problems that make them vulnerable. The FDA is demanding the vaccine companies conduct large, costly studies to prove the vaccines are still necessary and safe for everyone else.

Debates over existing recommendations

Administration officials argue the shots are no longer necessary for healthy pregnant women, kids and younger adults under 65 because so many people have so much immunity at this point.

Officials like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary also question the safety of the vaccines, even though billions of people have gotten the shot and there’s widespread consensus among most public health and infectious disease experts that the shots are very safe and effective.

“I think the pre-existing COVID recommendations, especially for anyone over 6 months of age, were pretty ridiculous and pretty extreme,” says Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “I think this aligns with what we do know about the current science about the vaccines and the current risks and rewards of vaccination.”

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