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On Monday, Oct. 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an “individal-based decision-making approach” to Covid-19 vaccination.
This adopts a recent recommendation by the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — a panel that was hand-picked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and approved last week by Acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill. This information will be uploaded to CDC.gov by Tuesday, Oct. 7.
“Informed consent is back,” O’Neill said on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”
The Health and Human Services website added: “ACIP’s recommendation emphasized that the risk-benefit of vaccination in individuals under age 65 is most favorable for those who are at an increased risk for severe Covid-19 and lowest for individuals who are not at an increased risk, according to the CDC list of Covid-19 risk factors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved marketing authorization for Covid-19 vaccines for individuals who have one or more of these risk factors, as well as for individuals age 65 and older.
“Individual-based decision-making is referred to on the CDC’s immunization schedules as vaccination based on shared clinical decision-making, which references providers including physicians, nurses and pharmacists. It means that the clinical decision to vaccinate should be based on patient characteristics that unlike age are difficult to incorporate in recommendations, including risk factors for the underlying disease as well as the characteristics of the vaccine itself and the best available evidence of who may benefit from vaccination.”
The new guidelines differ from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (ISDA), which recommend the Covid shot for children ages 6 months to 2 years.
Meanwhile, many blue states with Democratic governors have sought to make an end-run around what they see as vaccine limitations – while addressing the limitless nature of infectious diseases, which transcend borders — by forming health-care consortiums of neighboring states. New York and Connecticut are part of the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, formed in September. (It also includes New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine.)
On Sunday, Oct. 5, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-New York) announced an extension of Executive Order 52, which allows pharmacists to continue administering Covid vaccines, providing access for all New Yorkers who wish to be vaccinated. The executive order will be in place for at least another 30 days while work continues on a long-term legislative solution.
She has also called on the federal government to make the Covid shot available through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. (As of now, her website said, the Trump administration has not made the Covid vaccines available for states to order through its VFC program.) Hochul has directed the New York state Department of Health to explore additional solutions to ensure all children have access to the vaccines.
In September, Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Connecticut) announced a series of similar executive actions to ensure accessibility and insurance coverage for all those who want to be vaccinated in his state.
AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), a trade and advocacy group representing insurers, has posted a statement saying: “Health plans will continue to cover all ACIP-recommended immunizations that were recommended as of Sept. 1, 2025, including updated formulations of the Covid-19 and influenza vaccines, with no cost-sharing for patients through the end of 2026.” That means that those ages 6 months and older are covered for the Covid shot.
Medicare, Medicaid and other government health plans also cover these vaccines.
