ATLANTA — Acting CDC Director and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill has approved new recommendations from an advisory panel on immunizations.

The updated guidance calls for individual-based decision-making regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, according to officials.

It also recommends that toddlers receive the chickenpox vaccine as a standalone immunization, rather than in combination with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

“Informed consent is back,” said O’Neill. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.

The Food and Drug Administration previously placed new restrictions on this year’s shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, reserving them for people over 65 or younger ones who are deemed at higher risk from the virus.

O’Neill recently was named the new CDC Director and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services at the agency following the firing of Susan Monarez.

CDC officials say “individual-based-decision-making allows for immunization coverage through all payment mechanisms including entitlement programs such as the Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Vaccines for Children Program, as well as insurance plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act.”