No, the CDC doesn’t recommend seven COVID-19 vaccine doses for 6-month-olds

Updated COVID-19 boosters are here for the 2024-25 season, and with them come misleading claims about vaccines and their efficacy.

Highlighting recent government recommendations, an Instagram post claimed, “The CDC says that little 6 month old babies must get SEVEN doses of the Covid vaccine in order to be considered fully ‘up to date’ on their vaccinations.” 

That’s not true, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chart included in the post does not support the claim. 

The post is a screenshot of an X post from the account Died Suddenly, which regularly posts vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The CDC recommendations vary based on a child’s previous immunization status, but they don’t recommend more than three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for any 6-month-old child. 

The CDC released COVID-19 vaccination recommendations ahead of the fall and winter seasons, when infections from respiratory viruses such as COVID-19 tend to increase. The COVID-19 vaccines are updated annually, much as the flu vaccines are, to adapt to new variants. 

The CDC’s September recommendations included procedures for vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax. They included recommendations for people who are not immunocompromised and for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.

For nonimmunocompromised adults and children older than 5 — regardless of their previous vaccination status — one dose of the current year’s Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is all the CDC recommends. The CDC recommends the Novavax vaccine only for people 12 and older, and recommends one or two doses depending on previous vaccination status. 

For children 6 months to 4 years old, though, the CDC recommends a different number of doses depending on the vaccine brand and the child’s past vaccination status. 

The CDC recommends unvaccinated children receive an initial three-dose series of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with three to eight weeks between each dose. If children have  received one or two previous doses of the vaccine, they should complete the series and receive all three doses, the CDC said. 

For the Moderna vaccines, unvaccinated children 6 months to 4 years old should receive an initial two-dose series, the CDC recommends. 

Children who aren’t immunocompromised and who have already received a full vaccination series, not including any dose of the 2024-25 vaccine from either manufacturer, should receive one dose of the current year’s vaccine, the CDC said. 

The highest number of COVID-19 vaccine doses the CDC recommends for a 6-month-old is three, if that child was previously unvaccinated. The CDC does not recommend seven vaccine doses in any situation. 

We rate the claim that the CDC recommends 6-month-old babies “must get SEVEN doses of the Covid vaccine in order to be considered fully ‘up to date’” False.

By

Caleb McCullough

Staff writer

November 27, 2024

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• For unvaccinated children 6 months to 4 years old, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two to three doses, depending on the vaccine brand. 

• For any updated booster after the initial series, children and adults need only one dose.

Statement

“The CDC says that little 6 month old babies must get SEVEN doses of the Covid vaccine in order to be considered fully ‘up to date’ on their vaccinations.”

Context

an Instagram post

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Instagram posts

Statement Date

November 26, 2024