Marin County’s public health officer is encouraging residents considering a COVID-19 vaccination to take action.
“We recommend that anyone 6 months or older who has not received their 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine get it now,” Santora said Wednesday. “It’s possible that by this fall there will be limited access to vaccines due to evolving policies at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Santora’s recommendation comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on May 27, in a 58-second video clip on the social media site X, that the CDC would no longer be recommending the COVID vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women.
“A statement like that creates confusion and undermines trust in vaccine safety and efficacy,” Santora said.
Normally, a committee within the CDC, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), makes recommendations to the CDC director about who should receive vaccines. The director nearly always follows their guidance. The CDC currently has no director.
“Kennedy has sidestepped that,” the health officer said.
As of Tuesday, the CDC hadn’t amended its online recommendation that healthy children 6 months to 17 years old be administered the vaccine. The change, however, came Wednesday morning.
“They just changed the CDC website,” Santora said. “Wow, that is in real time. Now they say routine vaccines are only recommended for individuals 18 years and older who are not moderately or severely immunocompromised.”
Under the new guidance, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccinations, if parents’ decisions are “informed by the clinical judgment of a health care provider.”
Regarding Kennedy’s pronouncement that the vaccines would no longer be recommended for pregnant women, Santora said, “Again, Kennedy is not following the standard process and procedures within the CDC. In the CDC guidance, pregnancy is identified as a risk factor. So pregnancy would be considered a condition that would make someone eligible for COVID vaccine.”
Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a prominent member of the ACIP, resigned from the committee on Tuesday in protest. Santora said Panagiotakopoulos presented data showing that unvaccinated pregnant women who contract COVID-19 are more likely to require hospitalization and that their babies’ health suffers as well. From birth to 6 months, infants are believed to face a risk of hospitalization comparable to adults ages 65 to 74.
“There’s a strong recommendation that pregnant women do get vaccinated because it provides protection to the infant,” Santora said.
The public health officer said the public’s choice regarding vaccination may also be limited by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA authorizes updated versions of the vaccine developed to better match the latest COVID-19 variants.
Santora said the Moderna vaccine developed for use this fall has been approved by the FDA only for individuals 12 years and older. Dr. Martin Makary, who heads the FDA, appeared together with Kennedy in the May 27 video clip.
Santora said the changes in the CDC recommendation and the FDA authorization could affect the willingness of insurance companies to pay for the vaccines.
Kaiser Permanente did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Santora said low-income Marin residents must go to local pharmacies to receive their vaccinations following reductions in federal funding for purchase of the vaccine.
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“RFK and his colleagues have been very clear about believing that children are receiving more vaccines than they should be receiving,” Santora said. “This may mark the beginning of major changes in federal policies that could affect access to childhood vaccines that have significantly reduced hospitalizations and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases.”
Santora said that testing of Marin County wastewater indicates that the presence of COVID-19 in the county is currently low. During the week ending May 24, there were two COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Marin County. The last surge of COVID-19 cases in Marin came in August 2024. Currently about 31% of the county’s residents are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations.
“It’s been a delightful six months,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California at Berkeley. “We can’t be very sure about what this virus is going to do, but there are very good infectious disease epidemiologists who argue that we will see a summer surge.”
Said Santora: “People forget until they get sick with it. They underestimate their risk. Based on previous patterns I expect to see an increase in infections.”
Bay Area News Group contributed to this report.
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