Health and Human Services Minister Kennedy Jr. Fills 6 Medical Groups, Excluded From COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations, including Pregnant Women

Jul 08, 2025

Health and Human Services Minister Kennedy Jr. Fills 6 Medical Groups, Excluded From COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations, including Pregnant Women
◇U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. speaks during the launch of the 'Make Oklahoma Healthy Again' at the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., on April 26. REUTERS Yonhap News



U.S. health authorities have been accused of suspending COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women.

Earlier, all Americans over 6 months of age were recommended to be vaccinated against COVID-19 every year, but on May 27, Health and Welfare Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. announced that healthy children and pregnant women were excluded from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination, sparking controversy.

According to local media in the United States on the 7th (local time), six major medical organizations, including the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Infectious Diseases, the American Medical Association, the Maternal and Prenatal Medical Association, and the Massachusetts Public Health Association, filed a lawsuit against Secretary Kennedy Jr. and the Ministry of Health and Welfare demanding that the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations be restored as before.




The move is based on the argument that the suspension of COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to healthy children and pregnant women is unscientific and harmful to public health. In addition, despite a number of evidence that pregnant women are at higher risk of serious illness, miscarriage and stillbirth if they contract COVID-19, Secretary Kennedy Jr. made the decision to ignore it, and the policy-making process also failed to follow normal procedures", he pointed out.

As the U.S. health authorities' suspension of COVID-19 vaccine recommendations has led to resistance and lawsuits from the medical community, attention is being paid to whether policy changes will take place in the future.

Meanwhile, Secretary Kennedy Jr., who has insisted on the link between vaccines and autism since taking office, has dismissed all 17 members of the Vaccine Advisory Committee (ACIP) under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since taking office, and is implementing policies to reduce recommendations for major vaccines such as COVID-19 and flu vaccines.






This article was translated by Naver AI translator.