A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Thursday found that Covid vaccines continue to protect healthy children from severe disease, a finding that top federal health officials have questioned in recent months.
From late August 2024 to early September 2025, vaccines reduced the risk of Covid-related A&E visits by 76% among children aged 9 months to 4 years and by 56% among children aged 5 to 17 years, according to the study.
Conclusionspublished in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) are based on an analysis of approximately 98,000 emergency room and emergency department visits. Children included in the study had varying levels of immunity from previous vaccinations and Covid infections, so the study looked solely at additional protection from the 2024-25 Covid vaccines, the authors wrote.
The study appears to contradict statements made by Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the effectiveness of the vaccines and address concerns raised by other federal health officials about whether children would benefit from continuing to receive Covid shots.
It comes amid widespread concern among public health experts that the CDC has lost scientific credibility, as well as allegations by former senior agency officials that the agency's political leaders interfered with scientific research.
Dr. Debra Khoury, who resigned as chief medical director of the CDC in August said the study's publication was encouraging.
“It's good to see data and science continue to flow from MMWR. I hope this publication continues to be the voice of the agency's scientists despite recent cuts in the CDC Office of Science,” Khoury said in a text message.
The Office of Science publishes MMWR, the agency's flagship science publication. Among other CDC departments, it was hit by massive layoffs during the government shutdown in October. The firings were later overturned and temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The CDC has undergone three rounds of layoffs since President Donald Trump returned to office in January.
The agency's Covid vaccine policies have also changed under the leadership of Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who oversees all federal health agencies, including the CDC.
Kennedy stated in Senate Finance Committee hearing in September that the vaccine industry has failed to produce research showing Covid shots are effective in healthy children. He added that there is “no clinical data” to support recommendations for Covid vaccinations for healthy people.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Study has repeatedly found that Covid vaccines and booster shots protect against serious illness both in adults and children.
Kennedy announced in May that the CDC would stop recommending Covid vaccines to healthy children and pregnant womenbypassing the typical regulatory process. Then, in September, a panel of vaccine advisers appointed by Kennedy similarly voted against universally recommending Covid vaccinations, instead suggesting that people talk to their doctors about the benefits of vaccination.
Two Food and Drug Administration officials, Commissioner Marty Makary and vaccine chief Vinay Prasad, said the benefits of Covid vaccinations are “uncertain” in Editorial of the New England Journal of Medicine published in May.
In a memo to agency employees sent last month, Prasad said At least 10 children have died from Covid vaccinations and that “we do not have reliable data” on the benefits of vaccines for healthy children. Twelve former FDA members denounced these claims, writing: in the New England Journal of Medicine that “substantial evidence shows that vaccination can reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalization in many children and adolescents.”
