{"id":780194,"date":"2026-09-23T17:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780194\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:58:10","slug":"delays-in-covid-shots-for-kids-is-latest-bid-by-trump-officials-to-restrict-vaccines-us-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780194\/","title":{"rendered":"Delays in Covid shots for kids is latest bid by Trump officials to restrict vaccines | US healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration<\/a> is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territory, and officials have not indicated when or whether the shots will become available.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest step by top officials to restrict vaccines<\/a> in America \u2013 and it sets a precedent for holding back other immunizations, experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re using every means possible to try and make it harder to get vaccinated,\u201d said Daniel Jernigan, the former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n

These actions could be a way of \u201ctesting the waters\u201d on halting other vaccines in the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, Jernigan said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing preventing them from doing that for the other vaccines as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

More than half of children in the US receive vaccines through VFC, and some states and American Samoa are also known as \u201cuniversal\u201d vaccine purchasers, which means they buy vaccines through this system for all children in the state or territory, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. But as updated pediatric Covid shots roll out throughout the country amid a Covid wave, HHS is not providing Covid vaccines through the VFC program, with no timeline on when the vaccines will be sent.<\/p>\n

That means the 52%<\/a> of children who are eligible for VFC \u2013 because they are Alaska Native or American Indian, under- or uninsured, or enrolled in or eligible for Medicaid \u2013 as well as all children in universal VFC states don\u2019t have access to Covid vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe delay in VFC means delays in these states\u2019 ability to get vaccine for all children,\u201d said Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC\u2019s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community health center.<\/p>\n

The states with universal purchase programs include<\/a> Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. Some states, like Idaho, also purchase some of the recommended vaccines in this way.<\/p>\n

Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), confirmed that Covid vaccines are not available through VFC. Because Covid can circulate at other times as well, including in the summer, \u201can arbitrary September date should not be treated as a public-health deadline for Covid-19 vaccine procurement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The CDC is \u201cfinalizing decisions\u201d about Covid vaccine procurement through the Vaccines for Children and Section 317 programs, and \u201cadditional information will be available soon,\u201d Hilliard said.<\/p>\n

She did not respond to the Guardian\u2019s questions about the effects on universal VFC states.<\/p>\n

The updated Covid shot provides the best protection against variants that are circulating now, Jernigan said. \u201cGetting the updated vaccine out there is going to provide the most protection to kids,\u201d he said. HHS is \u201cnot allowing the best vaccine to be out there to prevent the most disease.\u201d Previous vaccines expired earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Vaccinating children is especially important early in life; infants have one of the highest hospitalization rates from Covid after the 65-plus age group. \u201cThose are kids that have never been exposed to Covid,\u201d he said, and vaccination can help prevent these severe outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s, in a sense, almost derelict that you would not make it available to those most vulnerable to severe disease,\u201d Jernigan said.<\/p>\n

Jernigan is concerned about the vaccines that were recently designated \u201cshared clinical-decision making,\u201d including hepatitis B, meningococcal vaccines, and the flu shot; a judge\u2019s order has stayed<\/a> such changes for now.<\/p>\n

Robert F Kennedy Jr, HHS secretary and longtime vaccine opponent, has claimed that these changes have not affected vaccination, even as public confidence in vaccines sags after years of misinformation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not taken vaccines away from anyone. We have preserved access,\u201d he said at an anti-vaccine conference last week.<\/p>\n

Hilliard, the HHS spokesperson, did not respond to a question about how Kennedy\u2019s statement squared with the decision not to make Covid vaccines available.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot allowing universal ordering states to order vaccine is limiting access,\u201d Daskalakis said.<\/p>\n

The restrictions on vaccines are part of a pattern at HHS, Jernigan said, \u201ctrying to find each lever to keep the vaccine from being accessible.\u201d The administration has taken multiple steps to decrease the availability of vaccines, \u201cjust making it harder and harder\u201d to get the vaccines, he said, calling it \u201cdeath by a thousand cuts\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is holding back Covid vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}