October 5, 2026
by Veronika Kyrylenko
After years of appeals from medical freedom advocates, front-line physicians, researchers, and others who urged federal regulators to remove Covid vaccines from the market, the Trump administration continues to preserve and expand their use.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quietly updated its 2026-2027 guidance in September. It now recommends Covid vaccination even for healthy children and young adults whose vaccination would fall outside Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved indications.
The FDA had narrowed approval for people under 65 largely to those at “higher risk” of severe Covid. This approach drew criticism from advocates who argued that concentrating vaccination on medically vulnerable populations amounted to a form of eugenic policy.
Manufacturers still enjoy sweeping liability protection under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, meaning individuals injured or killed by the vaccines generally cannot pursue ordinary product liability claims against the companies.
The CDC’s change drew attention from investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., who reported on September 25 that the agency had effectively reverted to its earlier Covid vaccine recommendations without an announcement or public rollout.
The apparent conflict between the CDC and FDA is unusually direct. The FDA currently approves updated Covid vaccines broadly for people 65 years and older but restricts approval for younger individuals to those with at least one underlying condition considered a “high risk” of severe disease.
The FDA’s list of qualifying conditions includes cancer; heart, kidney, and lung disease; HIV; diabetes; obesity; depression and other mood disorders; Down syndrome; physical inactivity; and current or recent pregnancy. These restrictions apply to Moderna’s Spikevax and mNexspike, Pfizer’s Comirnaty, and Novavax’s Nuvaxovid.
In its September 23 update, the agency states a 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for all adults ages 18 years and older and for children ages 6 months through 17 years with moderate to severe immunocompromise; for all other children in this age group, vaccination is recommended through shared clinical decision-making.
The CDC explicitly acknowledges that recommendations for Covid vaccination for persons ages 6 months-64 years without qualifying conditions are based on off-label use. For children six months through four years, Spikevax remains the only FDA-approved Covid vaccine available. However, FDA approval for people younger than 65 is limited to those considered at high risk. The CDC nonetheless provides a vaccination schedule that includes healthy infants and young children under its “shared decision” framework.
The agency states this change reflects a return to recommendations from the July 2025 immunization schedules, citing “legal uncertainties and inquiries” surrounding federal vaccine advisory processes as the reason for the reversal. This effectively reverses the approach adopted in November 2025, when CDC guidance moved away from broad vaccination recommendations and placed it under individual-based decision-making (shared clinical decision-making). At that time, then-acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill declared “informed consent is back.”
However, changing the language of a recommendation does not establish informed consent. Medical ethics require clear, accurate, and complete information about risks, benefits, and alternatives for each individual.
The CDC’s decision comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Covid vaccine safety, particularly myocarditis in younger males. In June 2025, the FDA strengthened warnings for myocarditis and pericarditis in Pfizer’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax, noting a higher risk among males ages 12-24. The agency also found that abnormal cardiac imaging associated with vaccine-related myocarditis persisted months after vaccination, though long-term clinical significance remains unknown.
In November 2025, an internal FDA review of 96 reported pediatric deaths concluded at least 10 were “related” to vaccination under possible causation categories. However, the FDA stopped short of adding a black-box warning for serious safety issues.
The CDC’s reversal followed a September 18 open letter signed by over 160 physicians, scientists, researchers, and public figures. The letter demanded removal of mRNA Covid vaccines from the market, citing widespread vaccination among children as a key concern. Days later, the CDC moved in the opposite direction.
