Today, CDC stopped recommending COVID shots for healthy kids and pregnant women. CDC needs to do a lot more if it truly wants to follow the (lack of) science

Parents must not rely on other CDC recommendations and expect them to be in the best interest of their families, as CDC makes data-free recommendations

CDC still recommends the DTP, seasonal influenza, COVID (if you are not “healthy”) and RSV shots during pregnancy.

• But the DTP and flu shots were never approved for pregnancy by FDA. There are about a dozen flu shots (plus the flu mist spray) and their labels vary as to whether there was pregnancy testing or not for each one.
• Until about 20 years ago, FDA had a good system for identifying whether a drug or vaccine should be used in pregnancy. If I recall correctly, this is how it went:A—fine in pregnancyB—pretty good data but not conclusive for pregnancy useC—no data, use at your own riskD—does not look good but can be used if necessary in pregnancyX—never use in pregnancy
• This system was ended so things could go from straightforward to fuzzy and the new FDA-approved labels did not provide definite yeses and no’s for pregnancy or lactation, allowing greater use of drugs and vaccines during pregnancy.
• The RSV shots caused quite common premature labor in clinical trials, which led FDA to restrict the time period during which they could be given to later in pregnancy, in an attempt to avoid premature deliveries. However, the shot still causes premature labor, only many of the fetuses are older and more developed when they are delivered earlier, under the new guidelines. This reveals the FDA knew about the problem and approved the shots anyway. Even though the net benefit is probably negative and 1% more total pregnancies were premature in the vaccinated group than the placebo group. By pushing the shots off until later in pregnancy, more babies will be born early, but in the final 4 weeks of a pregnancy, when they no longer meet the definition of “premature” and are not identified in the label.
• Lactation is another fuzzy category, in which FDA lets mothers decide for themselves—a true copout.

I have screen shot some labels to show what I am talking about:

This is from one of many flu shot labels, in this case for FluLaval:

This is from another flu shot label, from GSK’s Fluarix:

Below is from the RSV vaccine for pregnant women:

Below is from one of the DTP vaccines used in adults including pregnant women. It seems that women reading the label may be discouraged from breastfeeding after having received their DPT vaccine during pregnancy.

What to do?

There are excellent books available from the US, Canada, Israel and Ireland to help parents learn about vaccines in pregnancy and childhood. Here are 3 you should know about:

The last book was written in Israel, then edited for an English-speaking audience in the US.

It seems I left an important book out, that was published in December 2024, and I have not had a chance to look at it yet: