RFK Jr. is officially waging a war against pediatricians. This week, he went after the American Academy of Pediatrics for rebuffing the federal government and continuing to endorse covid-19 vaccines for children.

In an X post Tuesday afternoon, the health secretary and longtime anti-vaxxer accused the AAP of bowing to corporate pressure in making the recommendations. He also claimed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent decision to oppose pediatric covid-19 shots represented a return to “gold-standard science.” The AAP, by contrast, has maintained that covid-19 remains a serious health threat to children, particularly younger kids.

The CDC’s about-face on covid vaccines

In May, RFK Jr. announced that the CDC would remove its recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women to receive the covid-19 vaccine, including annual booster shots. Though Kennedy was flanked by NIH director Jay Bhattacharya and FDA chief Marty Makary, the announcement featured no actual CDC staff. Several days later, the CDC officially updated its language to state that these groups may get these vaccines in consultation with their doctors (the previous guidance said they should).

Some countries have started to ease off their covid-19 vaccine recommendations for children. And the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel (outside experts who guide vaccine policy in the U.S.) was set to discuss their recommendations for the fall vaccination schedule in June, which would have included the covid-19 shots. Kennedy rushed ahead of the panel, however, and he provided no evidence at the time to justify the change. The next month, he unilaterally removed all members of the advisory panel and replaced them with members more supportive of his anti-vaccination views.

Why the AAP still supports covid shots for kids

On Tuesday morning, the AAP issued its own vaccine guidance, which, for the first time in 30 years, differs significantly from the CDC’s stance.

The AAP strongly recommends that all children ages 6 through 23 months old receive at least one covid-19 shot, citing their generally higher risk of having a severe infection. Older children are also recommended to get vaccinated if they fall into certain groups, including children at higher risk of severe covid-19 (such as those with weaker immune systems), children who have never been vaccinated at all, and children living with other people at high risk of severe covid-19.

The AAP also took another swipe at HHS for its recent decision to recommend against vaccines containing thimerosal, a preservative that anti-vaxxers have long alleged causes autism despite many studies finding otherwise. It continued to endorse the small minority of vaccines made with the ingredient and recommended against delaying this year’s flu shots to remove these products from the market.

“We extensively reviewed the most recently available data about covid-19 risks in kids, as well as safety and effectiveness of available COVID-19 vaccines. It’s clear they are very safe for all populations,” said Sean O’Leary, chair of the AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, in a statement from the AAP. “Among the reasons we decided to move to a risk-based recommendation for healthy older children is the fact that the hospitalization rate for young children and children with underlying medical conditions remains high, in line with rates for many of the other vaccine-preventable diseases for which we vaccinate.”

Kennedy, however, alleged in his X post that the AAP’s decision was possibly a part of a “pay-to-play scheme to promote commercial ambitions of AAP’s Big Pharma benefactors.” And he called for the AAP to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.

For starters, the AAP does disclose its funders, some of which do include vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer. These funders don’t change the reality that while covid-19 is generally less dangerous to children than older adults, it isn’t harmless. Covid-19 has sickened children, sometimes severely, and in rare cases, has even been fatal. Meanwhile, reams of scientific data have consistently shown that covid-19 vaccines greatly reduce the risk of severe illness.

Kennedy is also hardly one to talk about financial conflicts of interest, given that he has greatly profited from crusading against vaccine makers. And in fact, many of RFK’s ideological allies and anti-vaccination proponents promote their own, often unregulated, health products and alternative treatments.

In the battle between the AAP and the revamped HHS under RFK. Jr, I’d much rather back the side that doesn’t demonize vaccines every chance it gets.