Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely countered Kennedy’s new policy.

The agency kept COVID shots on the schedule for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years old, but added a new condition: Children and their caregivers will be able to get the vaccines in consultation with a doctor or provider, which the agency calls “shared decision-making.”

The shots will also remain available under those terms to about 38 million low-income children who rely on the Vaccines for Children program, according to an emailed update from the CDC on Friday.

Kennedy’s original pronouncement, on Tuesday, had caused an uproar among pediatricians and public health experts, who pointed out that very young children and pregnant women face high risks of severe illness from the virus. Many also worried that the new policy would prompt insurers and government programs to reduce or drop coverage of the cost of the shots.

The latest changes clarify coverage for healthy children older than 6 months. But they leave those highest-risk groups — pregnant woman and young infants who are covered by immunization during pregnancy — without a formal recommendation. The quick retreat this week from Kennedy’s vaccine proposals adds to a long list of Trump administration pledges that have been reversed days later. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, for example, have been revised repeatedly, and often weakened, after his tougher, initial actions.

Within the Department of Health and Human Services, Kennedy has also modified or selectively pulled back from his agenda. For example, after presiding over a reduction of 20,000 department employees that has shuttered many programs, he allowed for the return of some whose departures from important roles had drawn criticism from lawmakers and public health experts.