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It can be hard to sort through the conflicting and evolving information about vaccines. Here’s the latest guidance on Covid boosters, flu shots, childhood immunizations and more.
The vaccine situation in the United States has become confusing and chaotic. With evolving policies and recommendations, it can be hard to keep up.
Members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine guidelines committee convened last week and voted to limit access to updated Covid vaccines and combination shots for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, pursuing an agenda pushed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The full consequences of the changes are not yet clear, but if adopted by the acting director of the C.D.C., they have the potential to affect both patient decisions and insurance coverage.
President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have also repeatedly suggested that vaccines may be linked to the rise of autism diagnoses, a claim that has been discredited by decades of scientific studies.
We know you have questions about vaccines. After we asked what readers wanted to know, we received hundreds of queries about efficacy, safety, cost and access.
Here are some of the most common ones we received, answered by New York Times health and science reporters.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Are updated Covid shots available? Who can get them?
- Are updated flu shots available?
- What has changed about access to the M.M.R.V. vaccine?
- Why do newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine?
- Will my insurance keep paying for vaccines?
- If I have to pay out of pocket, how much do vaccines cost?
- Will I be able to get vaccines at a pharmacy, doctor’s office or health clinic?
- How are vaccines and their ingredients tested for safety?
- Is it safe for my child to follow the childhood vaccine schedule? How about to receive multiple vaccines at once?
- Do vaccines cause autism?
- How common are serious reactions to vaccines? Are certain groups more susceptible to them?