On Monday, October 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it updated its adult and child immunization schedules to apply individual-based decision-making to COVID-19 vaccination as well as recommend that toddlers receive protection from varicella (chickenpox) as a standalone immunization rather than in combination with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination.
According to the press release, the immunization schedules adopted recent recommendations by the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which were approved last week by Acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Jim O'Neill.
“CDC's 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred healthcare providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent,” Deputy Secretary O'Neill said in a statement.
APNews’ Mike Stobbe reported on Monday that HHS Secretary Kennedy announced in May that COVID-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. Kennedy also dismissed members of the CDC’s ACIP and replaced them with a handpicked group.
“Major medical societies continue to recommend shots for younger children, pregnant women, and others at higher risk of severe illness,” Stobbe wrote. “They say the Trump administration’s discussion of risk overemphasizes rare side effects and doesn’t account for the dangers of coronavirus infection itself.”
Meanwhile, New COVID variants XFB (Stratus) and NB.1.8.1 (Nimbus) are contributing to rising infection rates across multiple U.S. states.
Furthermore, the CDC stated that the new recommendation in the CDC child and adolescent immunization schedule for a standalone chickenpox vaccine for toddlers is based on evidence presented to ACIP by the CDC Immunization Safety Office. This evidence, the CDC noted, showed that healthy 12–23-month-old toddlers have a higher risk of febrile seizures seven to 10 days after receiving the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine compared to those who receive the chickenpox vaccine separately.
The schedules will be updated on CDC.gov by October 7, 2025.
