• Posted September 22, 2025

New Vaccine Panel Recommends Doctor Consults Before COVID Shots

A new federal vaccine panel appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recommended tighter restrictions on COVID-19 shots.

The committee voted unanimously Friday to advise that adults 65 and older receive COVID vaccines only after discussing the risks and benefits with a health care provider. 

For people 6 months through 64 years old, the group said vaccination could be considered — again, after consulting with a provider.

That recommendation appears to conflict with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has authorized the shots only for adults 65 and older or younger people with certain health conditions.

The decision could affect whether people can still walk into local pharmacies for COVID shots, as two-thirds of Americans did last year. Some states may now require a doctor’s approval first.

This is no longer an "emergency situation," Retsef Levi, who led the panel’s COVID working group, told The New York Times. 

“We think that it’s appropriate to bring it to something that is being discussed between a physician or medical provider and a patient,” he continued.

Kennedy rebuilt the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), earlier this year after firing all 17 of the previous members. Most of the panelists at Friday’s meeting are new to the committee.

Many public health experts criticized its latest limits on access to the COVID vaccine, warning it could cause mistrust and lower vaccination rates.

“There will be preventable deaths that result from these decisions,” Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who led the CDC’s COVID vaccine group before resigning in June, told The Times.

The meeting itself showed signs of chaos. Panelists openly disagreed, some abstained out of confusion and heated exchanges included one member caught on a hot microphone calling another member “an idiot,” The Times reported.

CDC staff and outside medical organizations have repeatedly emphasized that COVID vaccines remain safe and effective.

“Or, if we don’t want to say effective, they work,” Dr. Henry Bernstein, a member of the COVID working group, said.

The committee also debated hepatitis B vaccines for newborns and a combination measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox for children but postponed those final votes. 

Hepatitis B experts urged caution, noting that the vaccine has nearly eliminated maternal transmission in the United States, The Times said.

More information

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has more on vaccine recommendations.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Sept. 19, 2025