Posts misrepresent WHO guidance on COVID vaccines for youth

CLAIM: The World Health Organization now says COVID-19 vaccines are “not recommended” for healthy children and teens.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A WHO advisory group released new guidance that suggests countries prioritize continued COVID-19 vaccinations for those most at risk, such as older people and those with underlying health conditions. The group said countries should consider prioritizing vaccines against more threatening diseases for healthy young people, but it did not recommend against COVID-19 shots, which it said are safe and effective.

THE FACTS: The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization met this month and updated its COVID-19 vaccine guidance. The revisions account for changing conditions, including the fact that many people now have either been infected, vaccinated or both.

But social media posts responding to the development wrongly suggested the WHO was now recommending against children and teens receiving COVID-19 vaccines — or conceding that young people never needed them.

“WHO now recommends healthy, young people NOT get the Covid Vaccines,” one tweet claims.

That misrepresents the updated guidance.

The WHO said in an announcement that the new guidance indicates that countries’ COVID-19 vaccine and boosting strategies should focus on those most at risk — such as older adults and those with underlying conditions.

“Countries should consider their specific context in deciding whether to continue vaccinating low risk groups, like healthy children and adolescents, while not compromising the routine vaccines that are so crucial for the health and well-being of this age group,” SAGE Chair Dr. Hanna Nohynek said in a statement.

In considering “the cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination,” the advisory group said, countries should ensure healthy children and teens receive traditional vaccines, such as those against rotavirus and measles. Still, it said, primary and booster COVID-19 shots are “safe and effective in children and adolescents.”

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, also confirmed the guidance isn’t advising against COVID-19 vaccines.

“I think it is critical to understand the actual context of the WHO guidance,” Adalja said in an email. “It is not that they are not recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for low risk children.”

Instead, he said, the guidance is stressing that, in places where resources might be constrained, vaccinating low-risk individuals against COVID-19 isn’t as important as vaccinating against more threatening childhood diseases.

The move is “entirely about cost-effectiveness and priorities,” Adalja said.

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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.