Oct 6 (Reuters) -

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on

Monday said it had adopted recommendations from a panel of

outside advisors without change, including that COVID-19

vaccines should be administered through shared decision-making

with a healthcare provider.

The new recommendation maintains access for the shot through

health insurance.

The recommendations come at a turbulent time for the CDC,

which recently saw the ouster of its former Director Susan

Monarez after resisting changes to vaccine policy advanced by

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The acting director of the CDC, Jim O'Neill, also signed

off on its advisers' recommendations against use of the combined

measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine before the age of 4

years. Instead, separate shots will be given for

measles-mumps-rubella and varicella, commonly known as

chickenpox.

The immunization schedules will be updated on the CDC

website by Tuesday, the agency said.

Earlier this year, CDC said COVID vaccination in healthy

children aged 6 months to 17 years should follow shared clinical

decision by a child's parents and their healthcare provider,

after Kennedy said the recommendations for such children and

pregnant women would be dropped.

Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, has sought to rewrite

the country's immunization policies through a series of

far-reaching actions, including dismantling the national vaccine

advisory board and later reconstituting it with hand-picked

experts who share his opposition to COVID shots.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in August, had

cleared updated COVID-19 vaccines for everyone over age 65 but

limited its approval for younger people to those with health

risks.

The three approved COVID shots are made by Pfizer ( PFE )

with German partner BioNTech, Moderna ( MRNA ), and

Novavax ( NVAX ) with Sanofi.