LAist: CDC Changes Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccines. What Does Science Say?

LAist program AirTalk recently interviewed Kimberly Shriner, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at Huntington Health, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai, about the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent decision to no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for children and pregnant women.

Shriner told AirTalk host Larry Mantle that while it is normal for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to revise vaccine guidelines based on the state of a virus, she is concerned that the announcement will discourage parents from vaccinating their children against COVID-19.

“Even though children often have much milder COVID, there are still plenty of children that are quite sick and require hospitalization--and sadly, there are still pediatric deaths due to COVID-19,” Shriner said.

Shriner told Mantle that women’s immune systems are weakened during pregnancy, making them susceptible to a range of viral infections. That’s why she recommends that pregnant women continue to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There are many, many studies that have shown that the vaccine is safe in pregnant women and that it clearly helps prevent serious disease and perhaps even death in that patient population, so I'm worried and think it's going to be confusing,” Shriner said.

Shriner added that people 65 and older are eligible to get a COVID-19 booster twice a year and recommended that individuals in this group evaluate their personal risk to determine whether that makes sense for them.

“When you're doing sort of a higher risk thing, where there may be a likely exposure, and you don't want to ruin your trip, or you want to make sure that you're as protected as you possibly can,” Shriner said.

Click here to listen to the entire segment of AirTalk.