FDA ends broad Covid vaccine authorization as RFK Jr. limits access to immunizations [View all]

Source: CNBC

Published Wed, Aug 27 2025 12:54 PM EDT Updated 7 Min Ago


The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday ended its broader authorization of Covid vaccines in the U.S., only clearing shots for people at higher risk of severe illness. The move could complicate access to the shots for millions of Americans, and raises questions about whether insurance plans will still cover them for healthy adults.

“The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a post on X.
The American people demanded science, safety, and common sense,” he said. “This framework delivers all three.”

It follows several efforts by Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, to change and undermine immunizations in the U.S. The new limited authorizations are a break from U.S. vaccine policy in previous years, which recommended an annual Covid shot for all Americans 6 months and up.

A key panel of vaccine advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must vote to recommend the Covid shots. But Kennedy earlier this year gutted that panel and named new members, some of whom are widely known vaccine critics.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/27/fda-covid-vaccine-authorization--rfk.html