Trump administration withholds COVID vaccines from VFC program in at least 11 states

Former CDC officials warn delay could affect other childhood vaccines

The Trump administration is holding back updated COVID-19 vaccines for all children in at least 11 states and one US territory through the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, and officials have not indicated when or whether the shots will become available, according to The Guardian. The universal-purchase states affected are Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming, along with American Samoa.

The move is the latest step by administration officials to restrict vaccines in the US, former CDC officials said, and it sets a precedent for potentially holding back other routine childhood immunizations distributed through the same program. More than half of US children receive vaccines through VFC. Some states, such as Idaho, also purchase some recommended vaccines through the universal system.

As updated pediatric COVID shots roll out amid a COVID wave, HHS is not providing the vaccines through the VFC program with no timeline on when they will be sent. That means the 52% of children who are eligible for VFC — because they are Alaska Native or American Indian, under- or uninsured, or enrolled in or eligible for Medicaid — as well as all children in universal VFC states do not have access to COVID shots.

“The delay in VFC means delays in these states’ ability to get vaccine for all children,” said Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.

Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed that COVID vaccines are not available through the VFC program. Because COVID can circulate at other times as well, including in the summer, Hilliard said, “an arbitrary September date should not be treated as a public-health deadline for COVID-19 vaccine procurement.” The CDC is “finalizing decisions” about COVID vaccine procurement through the Vaccines for Children and Section 317 programs, she said, and “additional information will be available soon.” Hilliard did not respond to questions about the effects on universal VFC states.

The updated COVID shot provides the best protection against currently circulating variants, according to Daniel Jernigan, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC. “Getting the updated vaccine out there is going to provide the most protection to kids,” he said. Previous COVID vaccines expired earlier this year.

Vaccinating children is especially important early in life, Jernigan said, because infants have one of the highest hospitalization rates from COVID after the 65-plus age group. “Those are kids that have never been exposed to COVID,” he said, and vaccination can help prevent severe outcomes. “It’s, in a sense, almost derelict that you would not make it available to those most vulnerable to severe disease,” Jernigan said.

Jernigan said the actions could be a way of “testing the waters” on halting other vaccines in the VFC program. “There’s nothing preventing them from doing that for the other vaccines as well,” he added. He expressed concern about vaccines recently designated as “shared clinical-decision making,” including hepatitis B, meningococcal vaccines, and the flu shot; a judge’s order has temporarily stayed such changes.

“They’re using every means possible to try and make it harder to get vaccinated,” Jernigan said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine opponent, has claimed that these changes have not affected vaccination, even as public confidence in vaccines sags after years of misinformation. “We have not taken vaccines away from anyone. We have preserved access,” Kennedy said at an anti-vaccine conference last week. Hilliard did not respond to a question about how Kennedy’s statement squared with the decision not to make COVID vaccines available through the VFC program.

“Not allowing universal ordering states to order vaccine is limiting access,” Daskalakis said.

Jernigan described the restrictions as part of a pattern at HHS, with the department “trying to find each lever to keep the vaccine from being accessible.” The administration has taken multiple steps to decrease vaccine availability, he said, calling it “death by a thousand cuts.”