Trump Administration Halts Federal COVID Vaccine Guidance for Children

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has placed an indefinite hold on updated COVID-19 vaccination guidance for children and adolescents, according to two senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, pausing a set of recommendations that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had finalized but not yet published. The decision, described internally as a standard policy review, has not been publicly announced.

The guidance in question would have updated the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendation to reflect reformulated booster doses now available for the current circulating variants. Under previous administrations, the CDC routinely published ACIP votes as formal guidance within weeks of the committee's approval. The current hold has stretched past 90 days, according to HHS officials familiar with the timeline who were not authorized to speak on the record.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement Wednesday calling on HHS to release the recommendations without further delay. “Every week of ambiguity translates into children who do not receive a timely immunization,” said Dr. Moira Castillo, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. “Pediatricians are fielding calls from parents who don’t know what to tell their children. That confusion has real clinical consequences.”

HHS did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. A White House spokesperson, speaking on background, said the administration was “committed to ensuring that all vaccine guidance reflects the most current scientific evidence” and that no formal recommendation would be issued until a review by appointed officials was complete. The spokesperson declined to provide a timeline.

Public health researchers said the pause is consistent with a broader pattern of executive review applied to federal vaccine communications since the administration took office in January 2025. Several NIH-funded studies on pediatric COVID outcomes — including two related to long COVID in children under 12 — have also had their publication timelines delayed pending departmental sign-off, according to researchers involved in the studies who asked not to be named for fear of funding consequences.

The practical effect may be most pronounced in school districts and pediatric clinics that rely on federal guidance to structure fall vaccination campaigns. Several large urban school systems, including those in Chicago and Los Angeles, have said they will pause planning for COVID vaccine outreach programs pending federal clarity. In New York City, the Department of Health said it would proceed with its own fall vaccination program using existing guidance while monitoring for any federal update. “Our obligation is to New York’s children,” said Dr. Aswin Patel, the city’s acting commissioner of health. “We will not wait indefinitely for Washington to act.”