The leading professional organization for obstetricians and gynecologists in the US has launched its first maternal vaccination schedule and diverged for the first time from federal recommendations.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has long recommended giving the shots during pregnancy, but this is the first time it is releasing them as an official schedule.
The Trump administration, under the leadership of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine critic, dropped its recommendations for flu and Covid shots. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which offers recommendations to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was planning to focus next on vaccines for pregnant people before the committee was halted by a judge’s order.
The administration’s recommendations are not based in science, Laura Riley, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine and a member of ACOG, said in a press conference about the announcement: “The evidence, I think, does not support their recommendation. The evidence supports our recommendation.”
The recently announced new ACOG schedule recommends four shots for all pregnant people: influenza; Covid; tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap); and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
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About 13 medical societies endorsed the schedule, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
