Trump officials set new requirements for COVID-19 vaccines in healthy adults, children

NEW YORK -- Annual COVID-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved under a major new policy shift unveiled Tuesday by the Donald Trump administration.

Top officials for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) laid out new requirements for yearly updates to COVID-19 shots, saying they'd continue to use a streamlined approach that would make vaccines available to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one health problem that puts them at higher risk.

But the FDA framework urges companies conduct large, lengthy studies before tweaked vaccines can be approved for healthier people. In a framework published on Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, agency officials said the approach still could keep annual vaccinations available for between 100 million and 200 million adults.

"The upcoming changes raise questions about people who may still want a fall COVID-19 shot but don't clearly fall into one of the categories," said The Associated Press in its report about the move.

"Is the pharmacist going to determine if you're in a high-risk group?" Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was quoted as saying. "The only thing that can come of this will make vaccines less insurable and less available."