Personal choice
Watching the chaos surrounding the latest vaccine recommendations and the Trump Administration’s ongoing destruction of our federal public health system, I tried to imagine what an honest press release from the CDC might look like —
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
September 22, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (theoretically, anyway):
Last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. adopted new recommendations with respect to Covid vaccines in the United States. In accordance with those recommendations, today the CDC is issuing the following public guidelines.
Should you get the 2025 Covid vaccine?
Almost five years after the shots were first authorized, what we can tell you definitively is this: Who knows?
Or more specifically: It’s up to you.
Given the Advisory Committee’s recommendations, the CDC’s official position regarding the 2025 Covid vaccine is that it’s a personal choice. So, if you’re 65 or older—or really if you’re any age at all—talk to your doctor. “We” believe in “shared clinical decision-making.” Of course, “we” haven’t given your doctor any additional information, so he or she may not know how to advise you, but hey, no harm in asking. And maybe they’ll care more if you live or die than the Advisory Committee does.
No primary care doctor?
Since no one really knows what “shared clinical decision-making” means, perhaps you won’t need a doctor to help you assess whether to get the vaccine. Let’s hope the answer reveals itself over time.
Will the vaccine be covered by medical insurance?
Maybe.
Then again, maybe not.
No medical insurance?
We’ve made no provision for people with no medical insurance. The Advisory Committee would probably just ask why you don’t have insurance.
Are there risks if you do get the vaccine?
You better believe it! We’ll be listing all the known and made-up potential risks on a nifty handout that you’ll be provided if you do decide to get the shot. We’re aware some of the “potential risks” we’ll be listing are considered speculative because they have yet to be confirmed by any scientific process or objective evidence. Others are arguably known to be unfounded. However, some of those “potential risks” are being included because at least one member of the Advisory Committee thought they might have heard about a friend of a friend who might have had that particular side effect after getting the vaccine and, heck, that’s good enough for us!
(Please don’t jam up our phone lines with complaints about the committee member who led a work group related to the Covid vaccine. We already know he’s a professor of management and operations management at MIT, not a doctor. Besides, the professor is entitled to have his opinions about your health!)
Don’t all medical treatments involve some risk?
Of course! We’re not completely crazy, even if the Advisory Committee’s recent meetings have been described as “chaotic” and “marked by confusion over processes, technical difficulties and passionate disagreement among members and other experts in attendance.”
We recognize that some of Secretary Kennedy’s prior statements about vaccines may have seemed a bit unhinged “different.” To be clear—we’re not telling you NOT to get the vaccine. We’re also not telling you any of the many (MANY!) reasons why getting a Covid vaccine is still a good idea for many (MANY!) people. After all, we may have spent decades advising Americans on public health matters, but what do we know? You’ve got Google and ChatGPT. All we have is PhDs and MDs and all the other degrees that used to mean something. You don’t believe in experts anymore, and we believe in freedom. Including your freedom to guess what’s best for your health based on a melange of misinformation on the internet.
So, good luck.
And just remember—when it comes to the Covid vaccine, it’s YOUR decision.*
*Same with taking Paxlovid if you do get sick. Antiviral medications might be a miraculous way of avoiding a potentially fatal case of Covid, but you also might get rebound symptoms and that would be a drag. And while “long Covid” is definitely a thing, it’s not a thing we’re going to help people avoid. You’ll figure it out.