Insurance companies are not saying whether they will cover their children’s vaccines if the government stops recommending them
“We are committed to continuing to cover vaccines to ensure accessibility and affordability of this respiratory virus season,” the statement continued. “We encourage all Americans to talk about vaccines with their healthcare providers.”
ACIP made headlines in early June when RFK Jr. fired all 17 members and replaced them with eight newly appointed people. (The HHS secretary appointed members of the committee, but they usually serve a fixed 4-year term.) These newly appointed people include Retsef Levi, who said that according to the scientific consensus, MRNA vaccines are deadly and Robert Malone is deadly, and they often have articles on the link between cancer and covid vaccines on the link between cancer and existing good research. Neither Levi nor Malone responded to requests for comment.
The New York Times reported on June 24 that recently appointed committee member Michael A. Ross did not respond to a request for comment.
The committee released news again on June 25, when, at the first meeting of the year, it will form a working group to review recommended immunization schedules for children and adolescents.
“Our children and teenagers receive more vaccines today than most other developed countries receive, and what most of us receive in this room [were] child. ACIP Chairman Martin Kulldorff said at the meeting.
He noted that the team will examine the “cumulative effects” of the recommended vaccine schedule, including interactions between vaccines, the total number of vaccines given, its time and the recipient’s exposure to vaccine components.
However, the process of adding vaccines to the schedule has become strict. Paul Offit, director of Children’s Hospital at the Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center, said its manufacturers must demonstrate that it will not negatively affect the safety or immune response of other vaccines before they can be licensed by the FDA.
Furthermore, “the idea that these vaccines are somewhat weakening your immune system or overwhelming your immune system is fantasy,” Offit said. Today, in the first few years of the vaccine schedule, children are exposed to viruses or bacterial proteins. When Offit’s parents received the smallpox vaccine, they were exposed to 200 proteins in one shot. Instead, the measles vaccine contains only 10.
During the meeting, Kulldorff repeatedly said in 2024 that he was fired by Harvard for refusing to receive a covid vaccine. He and Malone are both in two paid expert witnesses against Merck for safety of the company’s HPV vaccine and its mumps vaccine. Kulldorff did not respond to a request for comment.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) did not send representatives to last week’s ACIP conference as it usually does. According to college president Susan Kressly, this is because AAP believes that the vaccine recommendation process lost credibility when Kennedy phased out his initial membership.
“We won’t lend our name or expertise to the system that is being politicized,” Cresley said in a video posted online before the meeting began. “AAP did not respond to a request for comment about the video.
AAP’s latest childhood immunization schedule starting in November 2024 is posted on the AAP website. Newer published on the CDC website has changed the recommendations. It is no longer listed for “regular” vaccines for children under 18 who are not immune to function, but rather as a vaccine that recommends “shared clinical decisions” and is informed by “personal preferences and environment.” Changes should not affect insurance coverage.
