For the first time in 30 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has broken from the CDC by recommending COVID shots for children as young as 6 months—raising ethical questions since its top donors include vaccine makers like Pfizer and Moderna.
Back up: The CDC officially withdrew its recommendation that healthy children receive the COVID-19 vaccine on May 27. Previously, the jab was advised for kids as young as six months.
The details: AAP released its annual immunization schedule for children on Tuesday, which included the COVID-19 shot for all children ages six through 23 months old.
It warned: “Infants and children six through 23 months of age are at the highest risk for severe COVID-19.”
Pay-for-play: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called out the AAP in an X post, arguing that it’s unethical for a pediatric group reliant on vaccine-maker funding to push universal child COVID shots.
- Kennedy shared a screenshot of their “President’s Circle” donors, which include COVID vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna, Sanofi, and Merck (who contributed to the J&J vaccine). He noted:
- “These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC recommended childhood vaccine schedule. AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence.”
- “AAP should follow the lead of HHS and disclose conflicts of interest, including its corporate entanglements… so that Americans may ask whether the AAP’s recommendations reflect public health interest, or are, perhaps, just a pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors.”
Liability: Kennedy also reminded the AAP that only vaccines recommended by the CDC are covered under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, meaning doctors and hospitals would be liable for injuries stemming from the COVID vaccines.
Big picture: AAP’s defiance of the CDC guidance highlights the battle between corporate-backed medicine and a federal shift toward parental choice.
This is a screenshot from American Academy of Pediatrics’ webpage, thanking the organization’s top corporate donors. These four companies make virtually every vaccine on the CDC recommended childhood vaccine schedule. AAP is angry that CDC has eliminated corporate influence in… pic.twitter.com/WtWe6vnUrw
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 19, 2025
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