CDC drops universal COVID vaccine recommendations, suggests separate MMRV shots

The CDC's panel voted last month to recommend COVID shots be a personal choice.

Pediatrician Mohammad Jarvandi prepares a COVID vaccine shot at his pediatric and nutrition center in Fairfax, Va.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its immunization schedule on Monday, dropping the universal COVID-19 vaccine recommendation and also recommending that toddlers receive the chickenpox shot separately from the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.

Acting Director and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Jim O'Neill signed off on the recommendations, which were made by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) last month.

"Informed consent is back," O'Neill said in a statement released Monday. "CDC's 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today."

Last month, ACIP voted to abandon its previous universal recommendation for annual COVID-19 vaccine shots for anyone aged 6 months and older, instead suggesting that Americans can get the vaccine "based on individual-based decision-making," or personal choice.

Patients are recommended to speak to their doctor about the potential benefits and risks before deciding whether or not to receive the COVID-19 immunization.

Pediatrician Mohammad Jarvandi prepares a COVID vaccine shot at his pediatric and nutrition center in Fairfax, Va. Valerie Plesch for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Many major insurers have indicated they would continue to cover the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine through at least 2026 no matter how ACIP voted.

In Monday's statement, HHS said that while the COVID-19 primary vaccine series reached about 85% of the U.S. adult population, the latest boosters reached just 23% of adults.

The CDC’s official recommendation comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration narrowed marketing authorization for updated COVID-19 vaccines for those aged 65 and older and for younger Americans who have at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe COVID.

Although the CDC said in a statement that the COVID-19 booster shots “prompted widespread risk-benefit concerns about their safety and efficacy,” public health experts have repeatedly stated the shots are safe and effective and studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccines prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the virus.

ACIP also voted to no longer recommend that children around 12 months old receive the first dose of the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. Instead, the committee recommended that children receive two separate shots: one for the combined MMR shot and a second shot for chickenpox. The MMRV shot will be recommended as an option for a child's second dose, typically given at around 4 to 6 years old.

The CDC said the new recommendations to separate MMRV shots came after some studies suggested a slightly increased, but relatively rare, risk of febrile seizures among toddlers who received the combo shot.

The ACIP meeting that resulted in changes to COVID-19 and MMRV recommendations was the committee’s second since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 of its members in June. Of the 12 advisers who have since been appointed, many have previously expressed vaccine-skeptic views.

ABC News' Sony Salzman and Dr. Jade Cobern contributed to this report.