Makary Struggles to Clarify New Covid Recommendations
In a contentious interview on CBS’s Face the Nation 6/1, FDA commissioner Marty Makary struggled to sort out and clarify the federal government’s shifting stance on Covid-19 vaccinations for healthy children and pregnant women — stressing a move away from universal recommendations and toward individualized, doctor-guided decisions.
Makary confirmed that FDA and CDC are no longer recommending Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children or healthy pregnant women as part of the routine immunization schedule. Instead, he said, the agency now favors what he called a “shared clinical decision-making” approach. “We're going to get away from these blanket recommendations,” Makary said. “We don't want to see kids kicked out of school because a 12-year-old girl is not getting her fifth Covid booster shot.”
The vaccination departure was announced last week in a joint video post on X by HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Makary nd NIH director Jay Bhattacharya. This sparked confusion after the CDC appeared to walk back some language, stating that vaccine decisions should be made between families and healthcare providers.
Pressed by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan for a clear policy statement, Makary hewed close to Kennedy’s controversial posture, responding that the government is not pushing for a Covid booster in young, healthy kids without any clinical trial data supporting it. “But what about kids who haven’t gotten a shot?” Brennan asked. Makary said the agency would like to see the data first.
She asked that for parents watching the interview and whose child has not been vaccinated, is the agency recommending that their first encounter with Covid be an actual infection? “That is a decision between a parent and their doctor,” Makary answered, adding that 88% of American children did not get a Covid shot last season. “So, the vast majority of Americans are saying no,” he said, “and maybe they want to see some clinical data as well.” Brennan interrupted and said she doesn’t want to “crowdsource my health guidance. I want a clear thing… I wouldn’t go with popularity. I’m going with, as you're saying, data.”
Brennan then cited CDC data showing that 41% of children aged six months to 17 years hospitalized with Covid between 2022 and 2024 did not have a known underlying condition, were otherwise healthy and Covid was serious for them. Makary dismissed the data, calling it contaminated with a lot of false positives from incidental positive Covid tests with routine testing of every kid that walks into the hospital. “When you go to an ICU [intensive care unit] in America and you ask, ‘how many people are in the ICU that are healthy and that are sick with Covid?, the answer I get again and again is, ‘we haven't seen that in a year or years.’ And so the worst thing you can do in public health is to put out an absolute universal recommendation in young, healthy kids.”
Makary repeatedly cited the lack of new randomized controlled trials as justification for pausing blanket recommendations. He said that while observational data exist — especially in the case of pregnant women — it is not enough to support continued universal guidance. When asked about a recent review of 67 studies involving 1.8 million pregnant women showing the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, Makary said those studies were not randomized and contained mixed results depending on the individual’s health status. “We’re saying your obstetrician, your primary care doctor, and the pregnant woman should together decide whether or not to get it,” he said.
On the question of transparency and process, Makary defended the administration’s decision to bypass the CDC’s traditional advisory committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), calling it a “kangaroo court” that rubber-stamps vaccine decisions. He criticized the panel for relying on messaging simplicity rather than rigorous data analysis. “We don’t want an absolute recommendation for healthy kids to get it,” he said, indicating that future guidance could still emerge depending on the outcome of committee meetings or new trial data. But when asked for a timeline on when that data might be available, he offered no specifics.
The discussion also touched on a newly emerging Covid subvariant, NB.1.8.1, currently circulating in parts of Asia. Makary said it appears to be a subvariant of JN.1, the previously dominant strain, and likely carries cross-immunity protection. He likened Covid’s long-term behavior to that of the common cold and downplayed concerns over the mutation.