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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for children — but a major medical group is going against that guidance.
On Tuesday, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its latest annual immunization schedule for children — and it includes vaccines for COVID-19, in addition to flu and RSV.
“Infants and children 6 through 23 months of age are at the highest risk for severe COVID-19,” the AAP states in its release.
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“Given this, the AAP recommends a COVID-19 vaccine for all children ages 6 through 23 months old to help protect against serious illness.”
The AAP also recommends a “single dose of age-appropriate COVID-19 vaccine” for kids and teens 2 and older who are at high risk of severe COVID, have never been vaccinated before, and who live with people who are at a high risk of severe disease.
“The AAP also recommends the vaccine be available for children aged 2-18 who do not fall into these risk groups, but whose parent or guardian desires them to have the protection of the vaccine,” the release states.
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“Among the reasons we decided to move to a risk-based recommendation for healthy older children is the fact that the hospitalization rate for young children and children with underlying medical conditions remains high, in line with rates for many of the other vaccine-preventable diseases for which we vaccinate,” said Sean O’Leary, M.D., chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, in the release.
In May 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines would be removed from the CDC’s routine immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women.
Instead of a universal recommendation, the CDC’s updated guidance calls for “shared clinical decision-making,” in which parents and doctors discuss the benefits and risks of vaccination for each individual case.
“Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances,” the CDC’s guidance states.
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In total, the AAP’s schedule includes immunizations against 18 diseases, recommended for all children from birth to age 18.
The AAP noted in a press release that its vaccine schedule “differs from recent recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC.”
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Other included updates involve the pentavalent meningococcal vaccine, the starting age of the human papilloma virus vaccine, and removal of a hepatitis vaccine that is no longer available, the release states.
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