Order ignores science, which shows pregnant women and newborns have high risk for serious COVID complications

By Miriam Raftery

May 27, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Health leaders are reacting with alarm to Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s  announcement that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have removed the COVID vaccine from its list of vaccines recommended for pregnant women and healthy children.

“That is a dangerous and irresponsible statement,” says Assemblymember Akilah Weber, M.D., an obstetrician and gynecologist who heads up the pediatric and adolescent gynecology division at Rady Children’s Hospital. “Pregnant women and children have faced real, documented risks fromCOVID-19. Dismissing science only puts lives at risk and undermines public trust.”

Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, shares that concern.  “The science has not changed. It is very clear that COVID infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability...The COVID vaccine is safe during pregnancy, and vaccination can protect our patients and infants,” CNN reports. “In fact, growing evidence shows just how much vaccination during pregnancy protects the infant after birth, with the vast majority of hospitalized infants less than six months of age—those who are not yet eligible for vaccination—born to unvaccinated mothers,” Fleischman added.