New covid vaccine guidance pits 'common sense' vs. science, data

If pregnant women and healthy children follow new federal guidance, they won’t receive the covid-19 vaccine and will face a greater risk for complications from the disease, three public health experts told TribLive Wednesday.

“This particular decision undermines years of medical research,” Dr. Syra Madad said of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement this week that pregnant women and children shouldn’t get vaccinated.

“It’s not following the science. It’s not following the data. It’s following the politics,” said Madad, the chief preparedness officer for New York City’s public hospitals.

Madad is also a Harvard University fellow and a mother of four who gave birth to her youngest child in March.

While she was pregnant, she got a covid-19 vaccine, as did the rest of her family, she said.

“There is some very strong data that shows vaccination reduces the risks of complications,” Madad said.

“The kicker of all this is the data is published by the CDC and the FDA,” she said, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration, two of the federal agencies that operate under the HHS umbrella.

Locally, UPMC and Independence Health systems declined to comment. Allegheny Health Network didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Just months ago, while pregnant, I got my COVID vaccine to protect myself and my baby because data shows it reduces risks of ICU admission, preterm birth, and stillbirth, while passing antibodies to newborns.

Now RFK Jr. is undermining that protection.

I explain why this is…

— Dr. Syra Madad (@syramadad) May 28, 2025

HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said the change in vaccine guidance is part of the Trump administration’s commitment to common sense.

“With the covid-19 pandemic behind us, it is time to move forward,” Hilliard said. “HHS and the CDC remain committed to gold-standard science and to ensuring the health and well-being of all Americans — especially our nation’s children — using common sense.”

The revised guidance also could change whether insurances cover the cost of vaccinations or not, Madad said.

Her statements come after reports that a new covid variant has surfaced overseas.

Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from @CDCgov recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing @POTUS’s promise to Make America Healthy Again. pic.twitter.com/Ytch2afCLP

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 27, 2025

Dr. Amanda Williams is interim chief medical officer for the March of Dimes, the national nonprofit founded in 1938 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat polio that now aims to improve the health of women and children. She said the new guidance is troubling and “goes in the face of recommendations of all of our governing bodies.”

“It’s like getting stabbed in the back from our own public health system,” Williams said. “It undermines all of the educational work, the communication we’ve been trying to do within our communities.”

RELATED: How do you navigate new covid vaccine guidance? We asked the experts

“They simply declare a truth no matter how flawed,” Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit said of the announcement.

It also poses more questions, including whether the new guidance is for healthy children to receive no vaccination at all or if it only covers booster shots.

Covid vaccination rates for children already are lower than those for adults, Offit said.

“One hundred fifty-two children died last year of covid,” he said. “Forty percent were previously healthy. Don’t you want to protect those children?”

Pregnant women have been considered a cohort that’s more apt to have complications from covid. Vaccinating pregnant women also is the only way to give newborns immunity to the disease, Offit said.

“The biology of pregnancy hasn’t changed,” he said.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary stood next to Kennedy during the announcement of the revised guidance. Makary published a paper a week ago that included pregnant women in the high-risk group that should be vaccinated.

“He contradicted himself,” Offit said. “I think this is exactly the wrong way to communicate policy.”