By Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering recommending that the agency restrict the use of COVID-19 vaccines.
A majority of experts on a subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the CDC on vaccines, have decided that COVID-19 vaccines should not be generally recommended, according to a presentation by the CDC’s Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, presented to the panel on April 15.
76 percent of the councilors in the subgroup that studied the matter said they supported the non-universal recommendation as of April 3.
This is up from 67 percent in February.
Counselors surveyed said they would be happy with any non-universal recommendation, such as recommending vaccines only for certain age groups.
“I am very pleased that we are seriously considering a risk-based recommendation,” said ACIP member Dr. Jamie Loehr at Tuesday’s meeting.
Loehr also said he is concerned that implementing a risk-based recommendation could send the message that COVID-19 is no longer dangerous, even though it is still causing hospitalizations and deaths.
Charlotte Moser, a member of the Consumer Representative Committee, said she also supports narrowing the recommendation. She said she thinks the narrower recommendation should still emphasize the importance of vaccinating young children.
Another member, Dr. Denise Jamieson, said she didn’t think the narrower recommendation was reasonable. She noted that an unpublished analysis of CDC medical claims found that about three-quarters of U.S. adults have at least one medical condition, such as chronic liver disease, that puts them at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
Loehr said that in his own practice, that percentage is much lower.
The advisors said they would be happy with any non-universal recommendation, such as recommending vaccines only for certain age groups.
The CDC currently recommends that all Americans 6 months of age and older get one of the available COVID-19 vaccines, even if they have been vaccinated previously.
ACIP simply provides advice to the CDC, but the agency usually turns the advice into formal recommendations.
According to the CDC, the ACIP’s formal vote on the CDC’s advice for the next round of COVID-19 vaccines, the 2025-2026 vaccines, will not take place until June.
In a separate presentation at Tuesday’s meeting, CDC data showed that the effectiveness of the current round of vaccines increases protection against hospitalization, which is below 50 percent.
The second presentation, CDC staff member Ruth Link-Gelles, concluded that the vaccines “provided additional protection against COVID-19-related emergency department and urgent care visits and hospitalizations compared with not receiving a vaccine dose in 2024-2025.”
High levels of pre-existing immunity after COVID-19 infection could affect efficacy results, Link-Gelles said. Previous infection “helps protect against future disease, although protection wanes over time,” he said.
According to the CDC, about 22 percent of U.S. adults have received one of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines as of late March 2025, compared to 21 percent who received the vaccines available in 2023 and from early 2024 through late March 2024.
According to the third presentation , the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 has decreased compared to the previous year, while hospitalizations for influenza have increased from 2023 to 2024. Most people hospitalized for COVID-19 had not received any of the latest COVID-19 vaccines before being hospitalized.
