Covid -vaccine changes confuse and disrupt some parents and families

Loryn Competti watched the news with her husband in their home in Cincinnati when she heard about the new federal policy about who a Covid vaccine should get.

“I started crying,” says Competti. “I had something like:” I’m really not able to get this vaccine? Why? Why? ” That is absolutely frightening. “

Competti, 30, is about five months pregnant, which means that it runs a high risk for serious complications from Covid. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have dropped its recommendation that healthy pregnant women routinely are vaccinated Against the virus.

That means that many insurance companies may no longer pay for the shots for them.

“I don’t want to get Covid while I’m pregnant,” says Competti. “I don’t want my child to hurt. I don’t want to have early birth. I just know there are complications that are accompanied by it.”

She also knows that the most certain way to protect her newborn son is by being vaccinated herself so that she can share her antibodies in her womb. Newborn babies are too young to have a chance themselves.

Loryn Competti, 30, and her husband Jack Mansfield, 30 pose for a photo in July 2024. Loryn is about five months pregnant and wants to be vaccinated to protect herself and her newborn baby.

Competti Family

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Competti Family

Competti is just one of the many people who are concerned about a flurry of changes that have been implemented by the Trump administration in recent weeks that affect access to the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women, children without other health problems and adults under 65 years without risk factors.

The CDC has dropped its recommendation that healthy children are routinely vaccinated and now says that parents have to talk to their children’s doctors about making the shots.

And starting with new boosters that come this fall, the Food and Drug Administration will now only approve the recordings for people who run a high risk of serious COVID complications because they are 65 or older or have risk factors for health problems that make them vulnerable. The FDA demands that the vaccine companies carry out large, expensive studies to prove that the vaccines are still necessary and safe for everyone.

Debates about existing recommendations

Administration officials claim De Schoten are no longer necessary For healthy pregnant women, children and Younger adults younger than 65 Because so many people currently have so much immunity.

Officials such as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA commissioner Martin Makary too Ask safety Of the vaccines, although billions of people have been given the shot and there is a widespread consensus with most experts in the field of public health and infectious diseases that the recordings are very safe and effective.

With most Americans Nevertheless, Covid refuse to make recordingsMany people are indifferent to the changes. In responses to social media received by NPR, some people Said they were happy to see the changes and claimed that the vaccines have caused them damage. And some external observers agree with the changes.

“I think the already existing COVID recommendations, especially for everyone older than 6 months, were pretty ridiculous and quite extreme,” says Right GlockDirector of research at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “I think this corresponds to what we know about current science about the vaccines and the current risks and benefits of vaccination.”

The recommendation that parents of children can still get their shots after they had spoken with their doctors can mean that insurers would still pay for the shots, but that is not guaranteed.

“Based on my collective observations of the payers of vaccines, the Bottom Line is to expect variability in coverage,” says Richard Hughes, A health care lawyer who is that After the problem.

Competti and others for whom the vaccines are no longer recommended or approved can still have access to the vaccines because doctors can prescribe them “off-label”, so that people can pay for them themselves. But the shots can cost no less than $ 200. Children who receive their first vaccinations require two injections.

Competti knows that she will probably still be able to be vaccinated by paying for a shot. But all uncertainty and changing rules make her anxious.

“If we lose access to Covid -vaccines, I don’t know if other things will be removed,” she says. “I’m scared.”

Another concern is that the movements confuse many doctors, pharmacists and other health workers, which makes hesitant to offer the shots, even if they could.

“This new HHS is changing, in the absence of any justification, fuel myths and misconceptions about Covid -vaccines,” says Kelly MoorePresident and CEO of Immunize.orgA group of interests.

“Conflicting recommendations, with professional medical societies on the one hand and HHS leadership on the other, will generate enormous confusion among healthcare professionals and the public,” says Moore. “People who are confused do not act. Their standard cannot be vaccinated.”

Be vaccinated to protect a family member

Healthy pregnant women are not the only people who are worried about access to the recordings.

Rachel Sampler Zelaya, 45, her husband, Jorge, 45, pose for a photo in February 2025 with their children (from left) Clara, 11, Jorge 9, Lucia, 6. The Zelayas are of Cottage Grove, Minn. And want to continue to be vaccinated to protect their daughter, Lucia, but also to protect themselves.

Zelaya -Family

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Zelaya -Family

Ashley Hoskins, 45, and her husband, Bob, 50, who in Nashville, Tenn. Living, with their young daughter, also want to continue to vaccinate. That is because Bob has to take a powerful immune system that suppresses medicines to prevent his body from rejecting his transplanted kidney.

“He runs an increased risk of catching everything,” says Ashley Hoskins. “So we should not only worry about whether he can receive vaccines. We have also always had to be vaccinated to offer another protection wall around him.”

Bob Hoskins will still be able to get a chance. But now Ashley Hoskins and her daughter are worried about whether they will do that too.

“Dean decisions such as this – it does not allow the families to think about their own private situation,” says Ashley Hoskins. “How do we protect the people we love? People will be injured. So yes, it’s frustrating. It’s scary.”

Rachel Sampler Zelaya, 42, Van Cottage Grove, Minn., Size too.

Her 6-year-old daughter, Lucia, has asthma. So Zelaya wants to keep getting herself, her husband, Jorge, 45, and their two other healthy children, Jorgito, 9 and Clara, 11, vaccinated to also protect her. But none of them would automatically qualify, except the youngest under the new policy.

“I’m angry,” says Zelaya. “It feels like I have taken a choice from me.”

However, some administrative officials wonder whether vaccinating one person protects the people around them.

“To date there is no high quality evidence that you get a booster to visit your grandmother, your grandmother protects past your grandmother who gets the booster himself,” Dr. Vinay PrasadDirector of the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which supervises vaccines, said on one CDC video. “Does it lead to less transfer? Does it lead to fewer cases of serious illness? We are interested in evidence to inform this claim.”

But other experts doubt that argument.

“In principle, common sense seems that vaccination, insofar as it reduces the infective frequency or severity, can help to protect others with which you can get in touch,” said Dr. Jesse GoodmanA former FDA vaccine officer now at the University of Georgetown.

This would be useful, says Goodman, “since the vaccinated person may have less frequent infections in the three to six months after vaccination and given that some studies suggest that there can be a reduced compensation for the virus.”

For Hoskins, she is not only worried about protecting her daughter. She also wants to protect the whole family to protect the health of everyone.

“It’s not just a cold. It influences the vascular system, the neurological system, the immune system. And even mild cases can develop into a long Covid,” she says. “We vaccinate for much less. And this is definitely a disease for me that needs to be vaccinated.”

Suddenly you have to worry about the vaccines again like a flashback to the early days of the pandemic, she says.

“It feels like we’re going back in time to where I can’t do much to protect my children,” she says.