Texas physicians group is undermining federal COVID vaccine recommendations, Paxton says

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Texas physicians group is undermining federal COVID vaccine recommendations, Paxton says

Texas Medical Association has nudged physicians to consider COVID vaccine recommendations from other medical groups.

BY TERRI LANGFORD
OCT. 6, 2025
8 HOURS AGO


Johan Arzade, 12, looks at his COVID-19 vaccination record card after receiving a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a clinic organized by the Travis County Mobile Vaccine Collaborative at Rodriguez Elementary School in Austin on July 28, 2021. Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday accused the Texas Medical Association, the state’s leading physician organization, of skirting new federal recommendations that now state childhood COVID-19 vaccinations are no longer needed.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice updated its vaccine guidance and no longer recommends that all children should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, it recommends that “vaccination for COVID-19 be determined by individual decision-making.”

Shortly thereafter, the TMA sent out guidance to members, telling them to consider both the CDC’s new guidelines and those of physician professional organizations that run counter to the federal guidance, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Paxton said the move represents an “undermining” of the federal guidelines.

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