in an abrupt move on Tuesday the federal government announced it's removing CO 19 vaccines from the list of shots recommended for healthy kids and pregnant women US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr delivered the policy change through a video posted on social media stating "We're now one step closer to realizing President Trump's promise to make America healthy again."

But the decision breaks with previous expert guidance and bypasses the panel of adviserss at the CDC who would normally vote on changes to immunizations Public health experts in New Jersey point to this past winter as a reason for concern where roughly 11,000 kids were hospitalized with a co infection The majority were under the age of five For more on that I'm joined by pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr Meg Fischer Dr Dr Fischer good to talk to you So let me ask you what this means in terms of access if people still want to get the shot who are now on this list that is no longer being recommended for So I think that depends on uh the licensing from the Food and Drug Administration So if the FDA would go so far as to not license the vaccine except for at risk people then that would greatly limit access If they don't do that if it's just the recommendation that changes then it's likely that people would have access to the vaccine but that they probably would have to pay for it themselves Okay So that's because insurance companies wouldn't pick up the cost Is that what you're saying insurance companies might not pick up the cost I think as with lots of things now there's just a lot of unknowns What is the federal government using to your knowledge to our knowledge Dr Fischer to determine what makes a healthy kid So I think that is uh probably the most concerning thing here Um as far as I can tell this decision to uh limit the COVID vaccine uh access uh was made without any input from pediatricians without any input from obstitricians and gynecologists truly without expert opinion The advisory committee on immunization practices has served this country well for decades to totally skirt and and and not ask that committee this very important question really makes no sense and is really very concerning uh for what may be in happening in the future Yeah I know today the head of that committee was quoted as saying that that uh he was blindsided by the decision but I mean isn't it fair to say other countries in Europe the World Health Organization as well for example have also agreed that healthy children don't need um to get this vaccination What are the implications there in terms of risk Is it that the benefit doesn't outweigh the risk What does the science tell us So the you're absolutely correct about many countries in Europe and many countries have uh decided to go on a risk u based uh um recommendation and in fact when this was discussed at the last advisory committee on immunization practices meeting that's exactly what they were talking about However that was with all of the information all of the scientific evidence all of the the uh input from the experts So I think that's very different than a person with no medical education a person who's who's been who's outright said that he doesn't believe in vaccines to make that decision for our country That to me is simply wrong I I know your background obviously is in pediatrics but what about for pregnant women because previously that was listed as a potential underlying reason for someone to be at greater risk of complication from an infection It was not only listed but it was listed because it's true We know that pregnant women get into much more trouble with COVID 19 They can have all kinds of complications of the pregnancy they can go into pre-term labor So it's bad for the mother bad for the baby And if the mother's immunized not only do you protect that mother but you protect the baby for the first six months of life So this is a a decision that makes absolutely no sense We know that pregnant women are at risk We know that very young infants have very small airways and that puts them at greater risk So you not only have said we're not going to protect pregnant women but we're not going to protect their babies for the first six months of life Uh Dr Meg Fischer we have to leave it there Thank you so much for your insight on this and your perspective We really appreciate it Thank you and thanks for asking Support for the medical report is provided by Horizon Bluec Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey an independent licency of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association