What's The Deal With COVID Vaccines Under HHS Secretary Brainworms?

The cranks are in charge, and nobody knows yet what insurers will do.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Back in May, the Food and Drug Administration announced, on the basis of nothing really, that it would only approve updated COVID-19 vaccines for adults over 65 and for other Americans who may be at greater risk if they get infected. With fall coming, it’s not yet clear how RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine fuckery will affect the availability of COVID vaccines for folks outside those groups, or whether insurance will cover them. The picture should start becoming clearer in the next week or two, but right now, it’s mostly chaos and confusion, which is never a good place to be when it comes to health. Thanks again, small plurality of American voters!

This week, there were some significant new developments, most notably the decision of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday to keep its recommendation that children aged six months to two years old get the vaccine. The AAP also recommends the vaccine for older kids in high risk groups.

The AAP’s recommendation goes against the brainwormed HHS secretary’s decision to stop approving COVID vaccinations for children aged 6 months and older if they are in good health, and to no longer approve them for pregnant women. The AAP said hell no to that because “the risk of hospitalization for young children and those with high-risk conditions remains pretty high,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, the chair of the AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases.

As the AAP points out, the hospitalization rate for children under the age of two is actually comparable to the rate for adults aged 50 to 64, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And despite RFK Jr.’s insistence that “healthy children” are at little to no risk from COVID, more than half of the young kids hospitalized had no underlying medical condition.

In its news release on the recommendations, the AAP urged insurance companies to continue covering the vaccines it recommends. As with so many other questions in the New Chaos, whether that will happen remains up in the air.

Secretary Roadkill wasted no time attacking the pediatricians group for questioning his authority, jumping on Twitter (archive link) to accuse the AAP of pushing a “pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors.” Kennedy’s “reasoning,” such as it was, is that pharmaceutical companies are among the donors to the AAP’s Friends of Children Fund, which is a charity for children’s health, although Kennedy implied the donations went to the AAP itself.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon also slammed the pediatricians for providing health recommendations, since that is obviously the job of whatever weirdos RFK Jr. hires. Nixon accused the group of “freelancing its own recommendations, while smearing those who demand accountability,” a statement that may someday make it into a psychology textbook as an example of pathological projection.

Children, Schmildren, What About The COVID Vax For Us Olds-But-Not-Yet-65 Olds?

Here’s where things get even stupider, thanks to RFK Jr.’s war on science. The short version is that yes, vaccine makers have updated their COVID vaccines to target the variant of the virus that’s currently prevalent in the US. As with flu vaccines, the COVID vaccines can’t completely erase the chance you’ll get the disease, but they continue to greatly reduce the risk of serious illness, hospitalization, or death.

Here’s where Kennedy antivax fuckery may cause problems for some people this fall: While the updated vaccines will still be available, insurance may or may not cover them for healthy adults who are younger than 65.

Up to this point, private insurance and Medicaid have fully covered COVID vaccines for people aged 6 months and up, since the government has approved the vaccines through the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). That’s the independent panel of experts Kennedy fired in June, then replaced with a crowd of antivax quacks. (A lawsuit filed by real medical associations against that madness is still working through the courts, but let’s not get too hopeful.)

As NBC News explains, the insurance wrinkle could arise because by law, insurers are only required to cover vaccines that are recommended by the CDC and ACIP. Kennedy’s reconfigured panel of antivaxxers hasn’t met yet to make its recommendations for this year, but is almost certain to follow Kennedy’s idiotic recommendation that the COVID vax be approved only for those 65 or over, or people at higher risk because they have other health problems.

For everyone else, coverage for vaccinations will depend on their insurance. Some companies may continue to provide full coverage, others may require a copay, and some may leave people to pay the full cost, which could cost up to $140.

After Kennedy made clear that he intended to move vaccine policy in a rightwing anti-science direction, a coalition of public health experts formed the Vaccine Integrity Project, a sort of ACIP-in-Exile, through the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. CIDRAP’s director, Dr. Michael Osterholm, heads the VIP, which will continue to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a broad range of vaccines. While the VIP lacks the regulatory power of the federal government, it’s made up of actual scientists doing science. (Not surprisingly, HHS spox Andrew slammed the panel in April as “a self-appointed echo chamber masquerading as oversight,” and basically said infectious disease experts are bad evil bureaucrats because they “failed millions during the COVID-19 pandemic.”)

On Tuesday, the VIP’s overview of current COVID vaccine research, announced in a livestreamed webinar, found that the vaccines remain safe and effective. Dr. Osterholm said that the review showed that “new data do not indicate the emergence of a safety signal or a sudden drop in effectiveness of these immunizations.”

Osterholm added, in what amounts to a dope-slap aimed at Kennedy’s wormy head, “There is no scientific evidence to support the changes HHS made to COVID recommendations for pregnant women or for children.”

The review was conducted by 24 infectious disease experts from a range of real academic institutions, who looked at nearly 600 papers, including 50 randomized, controlled trials. (Then again, all of those experts probably believe in germ theory and have at some point used a pen provided by a pharmaceutical company, so really they can’t be trusted. In the spirit of full disclosure, I myself possess such a pen.)

The report notes that in coming weeks, it’s very likely that other medical associations will follow the AAP in recommending the COVID shot for nearly all adults regardless of what the compromised CDC approves. Recommendations from groups like the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians may carry some weight with insurance companies, but unlike the ACIP approval, won’t have the force of law.

The good news is that real medical science continues. It’s just been largely evicted from the federal public health infrastructure that was once the world standard. Good luck, everyone; we’ll update you on what medical associations and insurers decide as the news arrives.

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FDA Sharply Limits COVID Vaccine Approval, Because The Cranks Are In Charge Now

RFK Jr. Is A Lying Liar Who Lies About Everything (Not That We Didn't Know That)

Goodbye, Entire CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee!

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[NBC News / KFF Health News / AAP / Politico / AARP / CIDRAP / CNN]

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