After a nearly monthlong delay, states are now able to order this season’s COVID-19 vaccines through a federal program that provides free immunizations to low-income children, the US health department says. Trump officials have still not provided a clear explanation for the delay, raising concerns about meddling from anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
On Wednesday, Ars Technica reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had still not opened ordering for 2026–2027 COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program. That was despite the vaccines having been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in late August.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Ars on Wednesday that “CDC has not yet finalized procurement decisions” for the shots. The department’s statement further suggested Trump officials were questioning whether children should receive them. “HHS and CDC are committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources and to ensuring that vaccines purchased through federally funded programs are appropriate for the populations those programs serve,” the department said.
However, The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that ordering was opening. An unnamed source told the Post that part of the reason the vaccine ordering was held up was a delay in finalizing the CDC’s clinical guidance, which is written for health care professionals and public health officials. The guidance reportedly needed to be reviewed by an external expert.
Lingering questions
The Post also reported that CDC career officials had previously finished preparations for making the vaccines available. All Trump officials needed to do was essentially push a button to open ordering, sources said. Further, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Health suggested to the Post that CDC leadership was behind the hold, saying the state had been told “that CDC leadership approval is needed before distribution of the vaccine can begin.”
In a response to Ars on Thursday, HHS again did not respond to questions about what caused the delay or how it was resolved. The department did, however, confirm that ordering for COVID-19 vaccines is now open.
The unexplained delay comes after Kennedy has, for years, attacked and tried to block access to COVID-19 vaccines. He has falsely called them the “deadliest vaccine[s] ever made,” and petitioned the FDA to withdraw and bar approval for the shots. Last year, as health secretary, he unilaterally revoked the CDC’s universal recommendations for the vaccines.
An order from a federal judge in March halted other changes Kennedy and his allies had made to CDC vaccine recommendations. That leaves the CDC’s current recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines where they were in July 2025. At that point, the vaccines were recommended for children, 6 months to 17 years old, who are moderately to severely immunocompromised. Healthy children in that age group were recommended to obtain them through shared clinical decision-making—in other words, by talking with a pharmacist or doctor.
The newly approved CDC clinical guidance had an update added yesterday saying: “Because of legal uncertainties and inquiries, the CDC states the recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination from the July 2025 immunization schedule remain in effect for the 2026-2027 respiratory illness season.”
Still, those recommendations differ from those of leading medical groups. Their recommendations for this year’s fall vaccines say that all infants 6 months to 23 months old should get vaccinated against COVID-19. Children 2 to 18 years old should be vaccinated if they are at higher risk or if they desire to be vaccinated.
