This story appeared in The Logoff, a day by day e-newsletter that helps you keep knowledgeable in regards to the Trump administration with out letting political information take over your life. Subscribe right here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dropping a Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention advice that wholesome pregnant individuals and youngsters obtain the Covid-19 vaccine, a regarding signal for vaccine availability and the nation’s public well being businesses.
What occurred right now? Kennedy, the Well being and Human Companies secretary, stated in a video posted to X on Tuesday morning that the Covid vaccine would not be included within the CDC’s advisable immunization schedule for wholesome pregnant individuals and youngsters. Being pregnant can result in elevated dangers from Covid-19, and really younger infants (who might be protected if their mom is vaccinated throughout being pregnant) even have increased charges of hospitalization.
What does that truly imply for vaccine availability? Although the change gained’t instantly forestall anybody from receiving the vaccine, it would virtually definitely make it tougher to entry by creating new value obstacles. Insurers are required to cowl advisable vaccines however not others, and a Covid vaccine prices about $140 out of pocket.
What else ought to I do know in regards to the change? Tuesday’s announcement represents an finish run round regular coverage course of for vaccine suggestions within the US, specialists informed Stat Information. Whereas Covid vaccine suggestions have been already beneath assessment, Kennedy seems to have circumvented the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in making his announcement Tuesday, opposite to a promise he made when he was up for Senate affirmation earlier this yr.
What’s the large image? Kennedy has a lengthy historical past of anti-vaccine advocacy; his resolution to change suggestions across the Covid vaccine with out full enter from nonpartisan specialists on the CDC represents a regarding politicization of public well being, one that might have well being penalties for People.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
I hope you had a superb vacation weekend, expensive reader. Now that we’ve handed the unofficial begin of summer time, it’s possible you’ll be on the lookout for a seashore learn — and the New York Occasions has this wonderful primer on Sir Terry Pratchett’s sprawling Discworld sequence from over the weekend. Columnist Olivia Waite describes it as a sequence “not about the right way to be good, however about the right way to do good, and why even the smallest acts of kindness matter.” Plus, it’s uproariously humorous — what could possibly be higher?