Why the CDC Isn't Talking About COVID Shots This Year

Fall is rolling around, which means sniffles, coughs, and all sorts of germs are about to make their rounds. The good news is that updated vaccines for COVID-19, flu, and RSV have gotten the green light from regulators and should be hitting clinics and pharmacies soon. Most insurance plans will pick up the tab. COVID infections are ticking up across the country, though the other two respiratory viruses are still quiet for now.

Here's where things get weird. Usually around this time, the CDC puts out official advice telling people to get their yearly shots. They back it up with data showing how well these vaccines work. But right now, the agency is basically mute on the topic. Why? There's a legal battle happening that's tied to the Trump administration's push to shake up how vaccines get recommended. On top of that, there's been an attempt to cut down the number of shots kids regularly get, and that's tied up in court too. The CDC did extend last year's flu vaccine advice to cover this year, but beyond that, silence.

Some public health experts have been nervous that all this would slow down or mess with vaccine approvals. So far, that hasn't been the case. Shots are getting approved like normal. But here's the real problem: without official public messaging, lots of people might just skip getting their shots altogether.

Lucky for us, independent medical groups are stepping in to fill that void. On Wednesday, several major organizations released their own guidelines in various medical journals. We're talking about groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. They all agree that the newest versions of the COVID, RSV, and flu vaccines do exactly what they're supposed to do. They cut down on severe sickness, hospitalizations, and deaths. That's according to the Vaccine Integrity Project, which published their findings in the journal JAMA.

"People are getting mixed signals about vaccines right now, and it's natural to wonder who to believe," said Dr. Bruce Gellin from the Vaccine Integrity Project. "Everyone deserves access to the best scientific evidence we have." Dr. Michael Osterholm, who leads the project, put it this way: while vaccine conversations have become super political, what happened here shows a different path. Scientists, doctors, and health experts saw a gap and worked together to fill it. The vaccines are approved. The data is solid. Whether people actually get them might depend on whether they hear about them at all.