Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had ordered the vaccine removed from the schedule.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed the COVID-19 vaccination back on its immunization schedule for pregnant women, months after it had been removed.
The CDC said on Oct. 7 that the COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women is recommended if women, after consulting with health care providers, decide to receive the shot.
Vaccination for COVID-19 is termed shared clinical decision-making, “with an emphasis that the risk-benefit of vaccination is most favorable for individuals who are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease and lowest for individuals who are not at an increased risk, according to the CDC list of COVID-19 risk factors,” the CDC stated.
Those risk factors include pregnancy and recent pregnancy.
In May, the CDC removed the COVID-19 vaccination from the immunization schedule for pregnant women, following orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a May 19 directive, later made public in a court case, Kennedy wrote that he determined there was a lack of high-quality data showing COVID-19 vaccination is safe during pregnancy. He also said there are potential risks to the mother and the unborn baby.
“Therefore, the CDC recommendation that pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine is rescinded,” he wrote.
Kennedy said during an appearance on Capitol Hill the following month that “if a pregnant woman wants the COVID-19 vaccine, she can get it,” but that the recommendation was rescinded ”because there was no science supporting that recommendation.”
The CDC first recommended the COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy in 2021.
After the removal, the CDC continued recommending the COVID-19 vaccination to most people.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel met in September to go over the COVID-19 vaccines. During the meeting, Retsef Levi, chair of the panel’s COVID-19 vaccine workgroup, said that most members of the group felt available data should lead to the panel not recommending COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
