CDC Updates Guidance On COVID Vaccine: What To Know In MA

MASSACHUSETTS — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, further conflicting with Massachusetts guidance set forth from Gov. Maura Healey and the state Department of Public Health last month.

The new federal guidance advises people 65 and older to consult a doctor or pharmacist before getting the shot.

"Informed consent is back," acting CDC director Jim O’Neill said in a news release after he signed off on the recommendations of an agency advisory panel.

"CDC's 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent," he said. "That changes today."

All Massachusetts residents ages 6 months and older, however, are recommended to get a COVID-19 vaccine this winter as part of Gov. Healey's unprecedented move to break with federal government advisories when it comes to vaccine administration and the potential impact on insurance coverage amid what she calls U.S. Secretary of Health Human Service Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "anti-vaccine and anti-science views."

The Healey administration said last month that the state guidance reflects a consensus statement from the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, a group of state public health agencies across the region.

• Gov. Healey Slams Trump, RFK Jr. As MA Calls For COVID-19 Vaccines For All Over 6 Months

Other major medical societies continue to recommend shots for younger children, pregnant women and others at higher risk of severe illness. They say the Trump administration’s discussion of risk overemphasizes rare side effects and doesn't account for the dangers of coronavirus infection itself.

COVID-19 vaccinations have been in a state of flux since early this year, when Kennedy dismissed the influential 17-member vaccine panel and appointed his own choices, many of whom, like Kennedy, have been skeptical of COVID and other vaccines.

In May, Kennedy bypassed standard regulatory procedures to limit vaccine access. He announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children and pregnant women.

States generally mirror CDC vaccine guidance, but in rare defiance of the Trump administration, some states — like Massachusetts — are making their own recommendations to keep access as broad as possible, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

"Whatever happens in Washington," Healey said in announcing the Bay State policy, "Massachusetts is going to make sure we are providing and protecting for your public health. We are going to make sure that vaccines are available to people in Massachusetts.

"We are making sure that public health is backed by science here in Massachusetts."

Healey said the state vaccine mandate applies to the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as childhood vaccines such as measles, mumps and chicken pox.

The CDC guidance comes as a normal summer uptick in cases appears to have peaked. According to CDC surveillance, test positivity dropped from a summer high of 11.7 percent reached the week of Aug. 23 to 6.7 percent on Sept. 27. Hospitalizations during the same period dropped by half.

Data from the most recent wastewater monitoring in Massachusetts shows a "high" viral activity at five collection sites. The data was last updated on Sept. 20.

Last season, 23 percent of adults and 13 percent of children got the vaccine nationwide, according to CDC data.

CVS Health spokeswoman Amy Thibault said the chain's pharmacies would be ready to administer COVID shots to people ages 5 and older as soon as the CDC signed off, according to NBC News.

Walgreens told NBC in an email that the chain’s pharmacies "will offer the 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines at locations nationwide" to people 3 and older without a prescription.

The updated vaccines offered by Pfizer and Moderna target the LP.8.1 variant, which accounts for just 3 percent of all new COVID cases, according to the CDC. A strain called XFG is now dominant, accounting for at least 85 percent of new COVID cases. Both are descendants of the omicron variant.

Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs will continue to cover the shots at no cost, an HHS spokesperson told NBC.

O’Neill also signed off on a panel recommendation that children under 4 get their first vaccine dose for varicella — also known as chickenpox — as a standalone shot rather than in combination shot with measles, mumps and rubella.

There is a single shot that contains all four, but it carries a higher risk of fevers and fever-related seizures. Since 2009, the CDC had said it prefers separate shots for initial doses of those vaccines and 85% of toddlers already get the chickenpox vaccine separately.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.