Health

(NEW YORK) — Prior to becoming Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had espoused the idea of “medical freedom,” the ability of people to make personal health decisions for themselves and their families without corporate or government coercion.

It’s an idea supported under Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the U.S. by making healthier lifestyle choices.

On topics, such as vaccines, Kennedy has said he wouldn’t prevent children from being able to receive vaccines but would leave the choice up to parents.

“I’m a freedom-of-choice person,” Kennedy told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview in March. “We should have transparency. We should have informed choice, and if people don’t want it, the government shouldn’t force them to do it.”

Some public health experts told ABC News, however, that the HHS has been limiting choices on some products for many Americans despite Kennedy’s talk about “freedom of choice.”

Just last week, Kennedy announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for certain groups.

Additionally, Kennedy has called on states to ban recipients of food stamps from being able to use them to purchase soda. He has also praised states for banning fluoride from public drinking water and indicated he will change federal guidance on recommending adding fluoride.

The public health experts said Kennedy’s actions are setting up a dichotomy on public health.

“I think that RFK Jr. has done a really good job of identifying some of the problems [in public health], but it’s the solutions that are problematic,” Dr. Craig Spencer, an associate professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice at Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC News. “What you’re seeing with RFK Jr. and his approach to health is an individualization of public health. It’s this idea that you can make decisions for your health, and that’s always been true.”

He went on, “We need to be able to follow their guidance, not just have them tell us, ‘Follow your own science.’ As the focus shifts from community to individuals, we’re losing a lot of that underpinning, which has led to a lot of the gains in public health.”

Limiting access to COVID-19 vaccines

Kennedy has repeatedly stated that he is not anti-vaccine and that he supports vaccination.

Shortly after Trump’s election, Kennedy said in an interview with NBC News that “if vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away. People ought to have choice, and that choice ought to be informed by the best information.”

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy said he supported the childhood vaccination schedule and that he would not do anything as head of HHS that “makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”

Separately, in an opinion piece Kennedy wrote for Fox News in March on the nationwide measles outbreak, he said the measles vaccine helps protect individuals and provides “community immunity” but also called the decision to vaccinate a “personal one.”

However, last week, Kennedy announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC’s immunization schedule for “healthy children and healthy pregnant women.”

The CDC’s immunization schedule is not just a guide for doctors but also determines insurance coverage for most major private plans and Medicaid expansion programs. Following Kennedy’s announcement, the schedule was updated noting all children would be eligible for COVID vaccines, but now under a shared-clinical decision-making model — allowing parents to choose whether their children are vaccinated alongside advice from a doctor.

“Regarding the vaccines, HHS is restoring the doctor-patient relationship,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told ABC News in a statement. “We are encouraging those groups to consult with their health care provider to help them make an informed decision. This is freedom of choice.”

“If you restrict access, you necessarily restrict choice,” Dr. Matthew Ferrari, a professor of biology and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News. “Those two things are antithetical. You can’t do both. You can’t say you’re allowing choice if you’re restricting access.”

Ferrari said the idea of “medical freedom” is catchy, but public health recommendations are made based on how to protect the most vulnerable individuals.

“If you look at the outcomes, if you look at the consequences of that movement, it has been to disproportionately restrict access to — and restrict support and infrastructure to allow people to access — preventive medicine,” he said. “It’s sort of easy to say, ‘Well, take the vaccine away. But [vaccines] prevent a future outcome of illness for yourself and for others in the community.”

Traditionally, the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices decides if there is a benefit to a yearly vaccine and who should get it. The independent advisory committee then makes recommendations to the CDC, which has the final say. The committee was set to meet in late June to vote on potential changes to COVID vaccine recommendations.

Spencer said Kennedy’s bypassing of traditional avenues when it comes to changing vaccine recommendations is also taking away choice from people.

“This did not go through the normal process that it should have, and he basically just made a decision for people while at the same time saying that he’s going to let people make a decision,” Spencer said.

Restricting foods under SNAP

Kennedy has also campaigned to prevent Americans from using food stamps — provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — to buy candy and soda.

“It’s nonsensical for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions of dollars subsidizing junk that harms the health of low-income Americans,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last September.

At a MAHA event in late May, Kennedy said the governors of 10 states have submitted waivers to the United States Department of Agriculture requesting permission to ban SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy candy and soft drinks.

“The U.S. government spends over $4 trillion a year on health care,” Nixon said in a statement. “That’s not freedom — it’s failure. Secretary Kennedy is unapologetically taking action to reverse the chronic disease epidemic, not subsidize it with taxpayer dollars. Warning Americans about the dangers of ultra-processed food isn’t an attack on choice — it’s the first step in restoring it.”

Nutrition experts agree that sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are unhealthy. Frequent consumption of SSBs is linked to health issues such as weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, heart disease and kidney diseases, according to the CDC.

Kristina Petersen, an associate professor in the department of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News there is a crisis of diet-related diseases in the U.S., which increase the risk of disability and reduces lifespan.

However, she said there needs to be strong evidence of the benefits of restrictive policies if they are to be put in place.

“In terms of limiting people’s choices, it is important to consider all the different roles that food plays in someone’s life, and so obviously we want people eating nutritious foods, but also we need to acknowledge that food is a source of enjoyment,” Petersen said. “A lot of social situations revolve around food. So, when we’re thinking about reducing people’s access to given foods, we need to think about the consequences of that.”

One unintended consequence could be an eligible family not signing up for SNAP benefits because of the restrictions, she said.

Even if a ban on buying candy and soda with SNAP benefits does occur, Petersen said she is not aware of any evidence that shows banning certain foods leads to healthier diets.

She added that the nation’s dietary guidelines are written to emphasize healthy foods like fruits and vegetable rather than telling people to avoid or restrict less healthy foods.

“All foods can be consumed as part of a healthy dietary pattern. It’s really just the amount and the frequency that determines whether that pattern is helpful overall or less helpful,” Petersen said. “People can have small indulgences, but really, we’re interested in what is their pattern over a period of time.”

Providing incentives for purchasing healthier foods may be more effective and still allow people to have choice, Petersen said.

A 2018 study used a model simulation to study the effects of food incentives, disincentives or restrictions in SNAP.

One of the simulations involving incentives for foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish and plant-based oils found to have the most substantial health benefits and be the most cost-effective.

“Things like fruits and vegetables, they do tend to be more expensive, so if you incentivize them by providing more benefits … that’s making the dollar go further, and it’s kind of making the economic piece of this a bit stronger,” Petersen said. “A lot of this is framed around personal choice. Rather than restricting access to, how can we give people more access to healthy foods? I think that’s going to have the greatest benefit here.”

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.

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(PHILADELPHIA) — KJ Muldoon, a 10-month-old baby who sparked nationwide headlines after receiving a first-of-its kind gene-editing treatment, was released from the hospital this week.

KJ has spent the majority of his life at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia after being diagnosed with a one-in-a-million, deadly genetic disease shortly after birth. Working quickly, his doctors were able to use new gene-editing technology called CRISPR, designing a bespoke treatment just for him.

The treatment, first infused into his body at seven months old, seems to have worked. KJ’s body, which was fighting a toxic buildup of ammonia, began to thrive and he quickly gained weight appropriate for a baby of his age.

Wearing a cap and gown to symbolize his “graduation” from the hospital, baby KJ was discharged home to his parents and siblings on Tuesday after spending 307 days at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Doctors and nurses gathered for a “clap out” on his way out the hospital doors, and he was escorted home by local law enforcement.

KJ’s metabolic condition, called carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency, affects about 1 in 1.3 million people. The disease kills 50% of babies by early infancy.

KJ “had the most severe variant,” Dr. Ahrens-Nicklas, one of KJ’s doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.

“This meant that we had to expedite the pathway for personalized therapy we were already working on,” he said.

Gene therapy treatments have already been approved for more common genetic diseases, including the blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, which affect tens of thousands of patients in the U.S. Those treatments are sold by major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

KJ’s disease is so rare that his doctors were on their own. But thanks to the technology available at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, his doctors believed they could use a streamlined approach to make their own bespoke therapy, in-house.

CRISPR gene-editing technology was the perfect tool for a rare genetic disease like KJ’s, and potentially future babies born with slightly different genetic errors.

“Think of it like a GPS signal,” Dr. Kiran Musunuru, director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute’s Genetic and Epigenetic Origins of Disease Program, told ABC News. “You can change where the GPS is going depending on what specific sequence of genes you want to change.”

Musunuru says there is still a lot of work to be done on this bespoke treatment to make it feasible, but he is hopeful that more babies with ultra-rare conditions can be treated this way.

ABC’s Dr. Keerthana Pakanati contributed to this report.

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(BAKERSFIELD, CA) — A 4-year-old girl receiving “lifesaving medical treatment” in the United States was granted humanitarian parole for one year, allowing her and her mother to remain in the country, the child’s attorneys announced on Tuesday.

The child and her mother, Deysi Vargas, have been living in the U.S. since 2023, but received three letters from the Department of Homeland Security in April saying their humanitarian parole was being terminated.

The young girl — who is identified by her lawyers under the pseudonym “Sofia” — suffers from “short bowel syndrome,” which prevents her from being able to properly absorb nutrients and fluid from food on her own.

Vargas received official notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Tuesday that she and her daughter were granted humanitarian parole. The parole period will last for exactly one year, expiring on June 1, 2026.

The legal victory came after Vargas brought Sofia for a biometrics appointment at a USCIS field office in Bakersfield, California, on May 30.

“We are profoundly grateful that USCIS acted swiftly to grant Sofia and her mother one year of humanitarian parole. By moving quickly, the agency has ensured that a four‑year‑old girl can continue receiving her life-saving medical treatment. We commend USCIS for its responsiveness and for recognizing the urgency of this situation,” her lawyers at Public Counsel said in a statement.

Sofia began receiving life-saving medical treatment for this condition at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles when she and her parents crossed the border from Mexico in 2023 on humanitarian parole, Sofia’s lawyers said during a press conference in May.

Sofia’s medical care, which consists of her receiving specialized IV treatments for up to 14 hours a day, can only be administered in the United States, per the equipment manufacturer, her lawyers said.

Vargas said the treatment in the U.S. has allowed Sofia to “live her life” with her family, but if she and her daughter were forced to return back to Mexico, Sofia “will be at the hospital day and night,” she said during the press conference.

In their statement on Tuesday, Sofia’s attorneys said, “While we celebrate this victory, we cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink. Her parole was terminated without warning, and for weeks there was no functional avenue to alert USCIS that a child’s life was in danger. It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response — something that used to take a single phone call.”

“Our immigration system must protect everyone facing life‑threatening harm. We cannot let this country turn its back on our immigrant neighbors seeking safety, justice, and a fair chance at life,” her attorneys said.

ABC News’ Matt Claiborne and Megan Forrester contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration announced on Tuesday it is rescinding Biden-era guidance that uses a federal law to require hospitals to stabilize patients in need of emergency care — including by providing an abortion.

In July 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance that, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), doctors must perform abortions in emergency departments — even in states where the procedure is illegal — particularly if it serves as a “stabilizing medical treatment” for an emergency medical condition.

Emergency medical conditions included, but were not limited to, “ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”

EMTALA, which was passed in 1986, ensures that emergency patients receive services and treatment regardless of ability to pay. Hospitals that refuse to provide “necessary stabilizing care” or “an appropriate transfer” can face civil monetary penalties.

The HHS guidance was one of the attempts of the Biden administration to preserve abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.

However, HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded the guidance, as well as an accompanying letter from former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, saying they “do not reflect the policy of this Administration.”

“CMS will continue to enforce EMTALA, which protects all individuals who present to a hospital emergency department seeking examination or treatment, including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy,” a press release from the agency read.

“CMS will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions,” the press release continued.

Abortion rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the administration and accused President Donald Trump of walking back on a campaign promise not to interfere with abortion access.

“By rescinding this guidance, the Trump administration has sent a clear signal that it is siding not with the majority, but with its anti-abortion allies — and that will come at the expense of women’s lives,” Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. “The ACLU will use every lever we have to keep President Trump and his administration from endangering our health and lives.”

The Biden administration’s guidance has faced legal challenges in the past. In January 2024, a federal appeals court ruled that Texas hospitals and doctors are not required to perform emergency abortions despite the guidance.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, the Department of Justice dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Biden administration against the state of Idaho, claiming its near-total abortion ban violated EMTALA.

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(MEADE COUNTY, SD) — South Dakota has reported its first case of measles this year. The state is now the 33rd in the country to confirm a measles case, with at least 1,088 cases reported nationally so far this year.

An adult who recently traveled outside the country tested positive for measles in Meade County, South Dakota, according to the South Dakota Department of Health.

It comes as federal officials are urging all Americans to get vaccinated against measles before traveling abroad, according to guidance updated last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Previously, the guidance stated that those traveling to countries with an ongoing outbreak should be vaccinated before leaving.

The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is part of the routine immunization schedule and has been shown to be up to 97% effective after two doses, the CDC says. Adults without immunity through vaccination or infection should also get vaccinated, the agency notes.

At least 62 people in the U.S. were infected with measles while traveling on an airplane this year, a CDC spokesperson told ABC News in part of a statement. “There has been only one situation during this period in which measles appeared to have been transmitted during air travel, ” the spokesperson added.

In South Dakota, the person infected with measles visited two medical centers where others may have been exposed to the virus.

The Department of Health says anyone who was at the Rapid City Medical Center Urgent Care waiting room on May 28 between 7:15 a.m. and 10 a.m., or at Monument Health Sturgis Urgent Care waiting room on May 29 between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m., should watch for signs of illness.

Health officials explain that the early signs of measles appear in two stages. In the first stage, symptoms include a runny nose, cough and slight fever. The eyes may become red and sensitive to light while the fever rises each day. The second stage begins between three and seven days after symptoms start, with temperatures reaching 103 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and a red blotchy rash that lasts between four to seven days. The rash typically starts on the face before spreading to the shoulders, arms and legs.

“Measles is a highly contagious viral disease and spreads through the air from an infected person,” Dr. Joshua Clayton, state epidemiologist, told ABC News. “Individuals who lack immunity from vaccination or past infection are at high risk of measles infection if they have contact with an infected person.”

According to state health officials, the measles vaccine offers the best protection against infection. People are considered immune to measles if they were born before 1957, received one dose of the measles vaccine (MMR) as an adult, received two doses of the measles vaccine (MMR) as a child or high-risk adult, have measles antibodies shown by a lab test, or had a previous measles infection confirmed by a lab test.

The Department of Health notes that the MMR vaccine is typically given at 12 to 15 months of age, with a second dose at four to six years. For international travel with children, MMR vaccines can be given starting at 6 months of age.

Learn more about measles on the Department of Health website, where information includes fact sheets, frequently asked questions, and a webinar for healthcare providers.

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(NEW YORK) — Most counties in the United States have seen a decline in childhood measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates over the last five years, according to a new report published Monday.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University looked at data from 2,066 counties across 33 states between 2019 and 2024. They found that 78% of the counties, or 1,614, reported a decrease in vaccination rates over that period.

What’s more, the average vaccination rate fell from 93.92% pre-pandemic to 91.26% post-pandemic, according to the report. This represents a decline of about 3%.

Researchers also found that just four states — California, Connecticut, Maine and New York — had an increase in county-level vaccination rates.

“Measles outbreaks happen within a community, and so it’s really important to understand vaccination coverage at a higher resolution than the state level,” senior author Lauren Gardner, director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, told ABC News.

“You could have a state level average that is around 95%, which looks pretty good and makes it seem like that state is protected but, in reality, you may have a situation where you have a group of counties with coverage around 100% and another group of counties with coverage that’s 90% or below. So, you actually really have a lot at risk,” she continued.

Gardner said this report is the first to examine counties to identify trends in vaccination rates using such a comprehensive dataset, and it mirrors national trends, showing a lag in MMR vaccinations.

During the 2023 to 2024 school year, 92.7% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is lower than the 93.1% seen in the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019 to 2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It comes as the U.S. has been facing a rise in measles cases across the country amid outbreaks in states such as Texas and New Mexico.

As of Friday, a total of 1,088 cases have been confirmed in 32 states this year, according to the CDC. This marks the first time the U.S. has surpassed 1,000 cases in five years.

Among the nationally confirmed cases, CDC says about 96% are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.

Three measles deaths have occurred so far this year, two among children and one in an adult, all of whom were unvaccinated.

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, but declining vaccination rates have led to outbreaks over the last several years.

The Johns Hopkins researchers noted that if vaccination rates continue to decline, the U.S. could be at risk of measles becoming endemic.

“I hope that [the report] sheds light on the importance of vaccination and the fact that we have a problem in this country right now with vaccination rates dropping in a lot of locations, and that this poses a risk to a lot of communities, but that it’s a recoverable problem and something that we can fix,” Gardner said.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses — the first at 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.

Previous studies have shown that even a small uptick in vaccination could prevent millions of measles cases in the U.S.

“It’s a very preventable problem,” Gardner said. “We have a very safe and very effective vaccine that is available, and so I think I would like people to take away that this is a problem right now, but it’s a problem that we can overcome.”

The report did not look at why MMR vaccination rates are declining, but Dr. Whitney Harrington, an associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Washington, who was not involved in the study, said there are likely a couple of reasons, including less exposure to the disease.

“In the case of MMR, historically, we’ve been very close to elimination within the United States, and that makes it hard to understand the rationale for being vaccinated or getting your children vaccinated,” she told ABC News. “And then I think, in combination, as we’ve seen less exposure to these diseases, at the same time, there’s been rising concern about safety of vaccines, and more vaccine hesitancy among parents and families.”

She said that any parents who are vaccine-hesitant should speak with their health care provider about the benefits of vaccination.

“I ask families, ‘What questions do you have?” rather than ‘Do you have questions?'” she said. “I think it’s much more effective to say, ‘Are there concerns that you have, or there are questions that I can answer for you about the safety of this vaccine, or about the disease that that were preventing’ and I think being able to share with family what its he disease that we’re trying to prevent can be really helpful.”

Dr. Keerthana Pakanati is a cardiovascular disease fellow at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — Cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1, a descendent of the Omicron variant, are on the rise in some parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Currently, there are not enough cases in the United States to register in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID variant tracker.

Symptoms appear to be similar to other variants of COVID-19 and the public health risk remains low, WHO information shows.

The earliest sample of the NB.1.8.1 variant was collected on Jan. 22 and it was designated a variant under monitoring — which may require prioritized attention and monitoring — on May 23 by the WHO.

Since the omicron variant was detected in 2021, new cases of COVID have been dominated by hundreds of its descendent subvariants, though none have led to the rise in cases once seen during the peak of the pandemic.

As of May 18, there were 518 NB.1.8.1 cases detected from 22 countries, according to WHO. While still only comprising 10.7% of the global cases at the end of April, this is a significant rise from 2.5% four weeks prior.

“Remember, we’ve seen summer surges. One thing that COVID has done is it’s been able to surge in the summer, and it’s been able to surge in the winter, and that’s very different than respiratory viruses we’ve dealt with in the past. But we still don’t know if this is going to be the virus that leads to a summer surge, it’s just too early to know,” Dr. Todd Ellerin, chief of infectious diseases at South Shore Health, told ABC News.

While there are increases in reported cases and hospitalizations in some of the countries with the highest proportion of NB.1.8.1 circulating, there are no reports to suggest that disease severity is higher in this latest variant than other circulating variants of the virus.

“With each new variant, what we’ve seen is severity doesn’t really change so far, we’re not seeing it have more severe complications,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor. “What we know is that when a virus is more transmissible, it will ultimately infect more people and when you infect more people … you’ll have more cases of severe illness, hospitalization, and unfortunately death. “

Data from China and elsewhere doesn’t seem to show anything unique about the variant other than increased transmissibility, Brownstein added.

Some of the variant’s mutations found on the surface proteins of the virus could increase its transmissibility and potentially make it somewhat harder to treat compared to current variants in wide circulation, according to the WHO.

Approved COVID-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective against this variant, according to the WHO.

“This is the natural path we’ve seen with every variant, and so the guidance doesn’t really change at the end of the day,” Brownstein said. “It’s making sure people are up to date with their vaccines and boosters … and then of course, those that are immunocompromised or in high-risk groups may want to layer in other types of interventions like masking or being careful about large group settings where there could be increased risk of transmission.”

Niki Iranpour, MD, is an internal medicine resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule for “healthy children and pregnant women” — a move that could alter guidance for doctors as well as some insurance coverage.

Kennedy, one of the nation’s most publicly recognized vaccine skeptics, made the announcement in a video post on his X account, where he stood between Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya — both of whom are doctors.

“We’re now one step closer to realizing President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said in the video.

While the text posted alongside the video noted HHS had taken action Tuesday, the official immunization schedule on the CDC website had not changed as of Tuesday afternoon.

The CDC’s immunization schedule is not only a guide for doctors — it also determines insurance coverage for most major private plans and Medicaid expansion programs.

It remains unclear what federal health officials consider “healthy” children or pregnant women.

Pregnancy is listed by the CDC as an underlying condition, so women expecting a child would theoretically be eligible for the shot even under the new FDA vaccine framework released last week.

Last week, the FDA announced that it planned to limit access to future COVID-19 shots only to people over 65 years old or those with an underlying health condition.

ABC News has asked HHS for clarity on Tuesday’s announcement.

Medical leader ‘kind of blindsided by this announcement’

Kennedy’s announcement cut out a process where the CDC’s independent panel of advisors vote for any new or updated recommendations to the immunization schedule. The panel has been expected to vote on the matter in their June meeting. In mid-April, the panel had discussed, and seemed to support, a recommendation that everyone over 6 months should receive an annual COVID vaccine or shift to a model where only those who were high-risk would be eligible.

Typically, the CDC director green-lights new vaccine recommendations, but with the active director role empty while Susan Monarez awaits confirmation for the CDC’s top job, Kennedy announced the new recommendations. Kennedy recently made changes to vaccine recommendations for those traveling abroad to an area with elevated risk of infections with the agency noting, “With pending confirmation of a new CDC Director, these recommendations were adopted by the HHS Secretary on May 13, 2025 and are now official recommendations of the CDC.”

A leader of a medical group that is typically involved in the process for changes to the immunization schedule noted he was “kind of blindsided by this announcement.”

“We were not consulted about this,” Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, told ABC News, referring to the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the recommended immunization schedule for children.

“My biggest concern is about the process. This really ignores a long-established, evidence-based process that has been used to make vaccine recommendations in the U.S. It ignores the opinions of the medical experts who help make these recommendations, and it also ignores all of the liaison organizations that work with the [CDC’s advisory panel] to craft these recommendations,” O’Leary said.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America said the decision will have a negative impact.

“Many health insurers rely on federal recommendations to determine coverage, and this decision could make it significantly harder for millions of Americans to access vaccines they want for themselves and their families,” the society said in a statement Tuesday.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said it is “concerned about and extremely disappointed by the announcement.”

“”Following this announcement, we are worried about our patients in the future, who may be less likely to choose vaccination during pregnancy despite the clear and definitive evidence demonstrating its benefit. We are concerned about access implications and what this recommendation will mean for insurance coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine for those who do choose to get vaccinated during pregnancy,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday. “And as ob-gyns, we are very concerned about the potential deterioration of vaccine confidence in the future.”

The number of children who have received the updated COVID vaccine annually has been limited since peak pandemic. An estimated 13% of kids received the most recent COVID vaccine, the latest CDC data from late April shows. At the same time last year, the rate was 14.2%.

The rate of COVID vaccination among pregnant women has also remained lower with 14.4% receiving the most recent COVID vaccine, the latest CDC data from late April shows. At the same time last year, the rate was 12.3%.

Kennedy’s previous comments on COVID-19 vaccine, childhood vaccine schedule

Kennedy has frequently shared views on vaccines — including the COVID-19 vaccine — that are at odds with the consensus of public health researchers and the mainstream scientific community.

In May 2021, Kennedy asked the federal government to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines; in December 2021 he falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine was “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Kennedy’s announcement comes weeks after he promised senators that he supported the childhood vaccination schedule during his confirmation testimony with the Senate Finance Committee in late January.

“I support vaccines. I support the childhood schedule,” Kennedy said at the time.

“If confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,” he repeatedly told the committee following questions from senators after his testimony.

Kennedy has previously advocated against the recommended vaccine schedule for children.

He has fought for changes through the Children’s Health Defense, a group he founded but resigned as chairman and legal counsel of to become HHS Secretary. Last week, he released his “Make America Healthy Again” report, which included calls for increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule.

Although the report states that vaccines protect children from infectious diseases, it also claims parents are concerned about their “appropriate use” and their “possible role” in chronic diseases among children.

“Despite the growth of the childhood vaccine schedule, there has been limited scientific inquiry into the links between vaccines and chronic disease, the impacts of vaccine injury, and conflicts of interest in the development of the vaccine schedule. These areas warrant future inquiry,” the report states.

Dozens of studies have failed to find a link between an increased number of vaccines and more chronic disease among children.

Earlier this month, Kennedy said during a House hearing that his “opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” later adding “I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice from me.”

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(NEW YORK) — More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the United States, hundreds of people are still dying every week.

Last month, an average of about 350 people died each week from COVID, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While high, the number of deaths is decreasing and is lower than the peak of 25,974 deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021, as well as weekly deaths seen in previous spring months, CDC data shows.

Public health experts told ABC News that although the U.S. is in a much better place than it was a few years ago, COVID is still a threat to high-risk groups.

“The fact that we’re still seeing deaths just means it’s still circulating, and people are still catching it,” Dr. Tony Moody, a professor in the department of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center, told ABC News.

The experts said there are a few reasons why people might still be dying from the virus, including low vaccination uptake, waning immunity and not enough people accessing treatments.

Low vaccine uptake, waning immunity

During the 2024-25 season, only 23% of adults aged 18 and older received the updated COVID-19 vaccine as of the week ending April 26, according to CDC data.

Among children, just 13% of them received the updated COVID vaccine over the same period, the data shows.

Dr. Gregory Poland, a vaccinologist and president and co-director of the Atria Research Institute — which focuses on disease prevention — said there are likely not enough people receiving the vaccine, which is contributing to the number of weekly COVID deaths.

However, for those who have received the vaccine, some may not be developing a proper immune response.

“There are some people who may be genetically inclined to not respond well to the vaccine. That’s the topic I have studied with other viral vaccines,” Poland told ABC News. “The more common issue is that people are immunocompromised and can’t respond well.”

Additionally, Poland said that immunity from COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time, increasing the likelihood of being infected.

This is why the current recommendation for those aged 65 and older is to receive two doses of the updated COVID vaccine six months apart.

“Another reason for death due to COVID is being elderly, being what we call immunosenescent, where you do not have the immunologic ability to respond the same way you did in your 30s and 40s,” Poland said. “On top of it, if you do get infected by the time you’re in your 70s, 80s, there is some … accumulating co-morbidity.”

CDC data shows that those aged 75 and older currently have the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths at 4.66 per 100,000.

Not accessing COVID treatments

Currently, there are treatments for COVID-19 patients in the form of antiviral pills, including molnupiravir from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Paxlovid from Pfizer.

Both treatments must be started within five days of COVID symptoms appearing and are given twice daily for five days, with Merck’s being four pills each time and Pfizer’s being three pills each.

There is also remdesivir, an intravenous medication that must be started within seven days of COVID symptoms appearing.

“I do think that we don’t necessarily make use of the tools that we have on hand in the best way possible,” Moody said. “I’ve certainly talked to people who have gotten medications when they got COVID and they made a huge difference. … The trials’ data would definitely suggest that the drugs are effective.”

“I do think that we may not be using the drugs as effectively, or in as many people as it might help,” he continued.

Moody said it’s possible some COVID patients are coming down with symptoms but are not going to the doctor until their symptoms become severe. Alternatively, some people are not undergoing COVID testing when they have symptoms and, therefore, are missing COVID diagnoses.

“I’m sure that there are people who are infected who are not being detected [and not being] treated,” Moody said, but he added that not everyone needs to be tested regularly and that just high-risk people should test more frequently.

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(NEW YORK) — Measles cases have reached 1,046 as the virus continues spreading across the United States, according to data updated Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Cases have been confirmed in 30 states including Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Infectious disease experts have previously said the U.S. is likely on track to surpass the 2019 total of 1,274 cases, which were confirmed over the course of a year. This year’s total also marks the second highest case count in 25 years, CDC data shows.

The CDC says 12% of measles patients in the U.S. this year have been hospitalized, the majority of whom are under age 19.

About 96% of measles cases are among those who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, according to CDC data.

Meanwhile, 1% of cases are among those who have received just one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and 2% of cases are among those who received the recommended two doses, according to the CDC.

At least three deaths have been confirmed this year, two among children and one among an adult, all of whom were unvaccinated.

It comes as an unvaccinated traveler with measles may have exposed people at Denver International Airport and a nearby hotel, health officials said on Thursday.

The patient was in the international terminal on Tuesday, May 13, and then took a shuttle to stay at the nearby Quality Inn and Suites that night. The next day, the patient took a shuttle back to the airport and boarded a domestic flight.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment said anybody who may have been exposed on either flight will be directly notified by health officials.

Similarly, a resident of King County in Washington state traveled through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and a medical center while infectious, Public Health – Seattle & King County said on Tuesday. The individual was likely exposed to measles while recently traveling internationally.

Additionally, the New Jersey Department of Health sent out an alert that a non-resident with measles attended the Shakira concert at MetLife stadium last week, potentially exposing people.

Although the concert occurred on May 16, officials warned that people may develop symptoms as late as June 6. So far, no associated cases have been identified.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to a highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. But vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.

“I think the overall and overarching worry we have is that, as vaccination rates decline, we’re starting to now see very contagious diseases such as measles come back and, generally, you need a 95% immunity wall of the population to stop an outbreak,” Dr. Scott Roberts, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine and medical director of infection prevention at New Haven Hospital, told ABC News.

“There are now many areas of the U.S. where we don’t hit that 95% and it’s much lower than that, and I think we’re seeing the consequences,” he continued.

Roberts say he’s worried about misinformation that has arisen around the MMR vaccine such as a link between the vaccine and autism, which has been debunked by several high-quality studies.

“I worry that we are seeing this misinformation and parents are reading these things on the Internet, which is not based in truth,” he said. “What we try to do as health care providers and public health professionals is really just to give the right information out there that the measles vaccine is safe. It is effective and measles itself is not a run-of-the-mill cold; it can lead to these really devastating consequences if somebody’s vulnerable and gets infected.”

Dr. Karen Tachi Udoh is an internal medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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