This is kind of surprising since RFK the lesser is in charge of the CDC:
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.
This page has been updated to reflect current FDA regulatory information for the 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccines, including approved products and asterisks indicating where recommendations for use are off-label, formulation, age and risk indications, dosage, and contraindications.
As with all medical decision making between patients and their healthcare providers, all patients should discuss the benefits and risks of COVID-19 vaccination to make informed and personalized decisions about vaccination.
So, shitty quasi-disclaimer aside, the CDC is recommending what it recommended last year: get you COVID shot if you’re over 18, or if you’re 6-17 and immunocompromised.
I was surprised by this, but having been in a couple of different chain pharmacies in the Western US the past few weeks, my guess is that those chains, as well as the vaccine makers, exerted a lot of behind-the-scenes pressure on the Trump Administration. Both CVS and Walgreens are offering gift cards if you get your free vaccination there. I’m guessing that’s because they make money on vaccinations in some way or other that I don’t want to think about too hard. Also, Trump has never been a big believer in the bullshit that RFK Jr spits out. He seems to generally use regular old Western medicine, and if he’s on any kind of drugs, it’s probably trials for drugs made by companies like Pfizer. He’s an idiot, but not a crazy idiot like RFK-with-an-asterisk. A spike in COVID cases near the election would make it even worse for Republicans, not that he cares too much about the members of his party, other than the ego damage that he’ll feel from being rejected by voters.
We’re going to be spending most of our time in Oregon and we’ve spent some time in Eugene and Portland (and a lot of other smaller places). I’ve written multiple times that one of the big reservoirs of resentment that Fox and others tap into is the rejection that rural red state residents feel when their kids move to the blue dots in their states (or in other states). I think that’s still true and has a lot of explanatory power.
But another part of the whole equation is that the people that red staters reject tend to end up in the blue dots. They’re the “freaks and geeks”. There are certainly a lot of them in Oregon’s larger cities. They seem wonderful. The ones I’ve interacted with seem to be fun and have a good sense of humor to accompany their piercings, tattoos, wardrobe and dyed hair. It’s a tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme that individuals who don’t follow the norms of small towns move to the big cities to become the human beings they want to be. Fox making these people into objects of hate is part and parcel of their weaponization of the worst instincts of their red, rural audience. I guess that’s obvious, but the people I’ve interacted with in these Oregon cities really underline that point.
