(TNND) — The American Academy of Pediatrics issued vaccine recommendations that differ from the government's guidance on the hot-button issue of COVID-19 shots.

And several vaccine experts said Wednesday that they expect pediatricians will listen to the AAP on this one, not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I expect nearly all pediatricians are going to follow the science-based guidelines, which is what the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center.

The AAP published new vaccine recommendations Tuesday with guidance for influenza, RSV and COVID-19 immunizations for children and teens.

The AAP is recommending a COVID-19 vaccine for all children ages 6-23 months while offering clarification for which older children would benefit most from the vaccine, including those who have underlying medical conditions and those who should be immunized to protect vulnerable people they are around.

The CDC, meanwhile, is no longer recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for all children.

A few months ago, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the government would stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women.

Kennedy said the COVID vaccine was being removed from the CDC’s immunization schedule for kids.

The CDC’s childhood immunization schedule still lists the COVID-19 vaccine but no longer recommends it, instead noting that kids "may" get the shot if their parents so wish and in consultation with their doctor.

The CDC now calls it a "shared clinical decision-making" vaccine, which means it’s not recommended for everyone in a particular age group.

Dr. Susan Kressly, the AAP board president, said in a news release that her organization “will continue to provide recommendations for immunizations that are rooted in science and are in the best interest of the health of infants, children and adolescents."

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon told The National News Desk in a statement that “the AAP is undermining national immunization policymaking with baseless political attacks. Secretary Kennedy has stood firm in his commitment to science, transparency, and restoring public trust. By bypassing the CDC’s advisory process and freelancing its own recommendations, while smearing those who demand accountability, the AAP is putting commercial interests ahead of public health and politics above America’s children.”

Dr. S. Wesley Long, the medical director of microbiology at Houston Methodist, said the AAP and CDC have had their differences in the past, but nothing to this extent.

And he agrees with the AAP recommendations.

“I agree with them,” Long said. “I think they're evidence-based.”

Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatrics professor and the director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, said the AAP felt compelled to offer clarity to doctors.

Even if the CDC isn’t actively discouraging doctors from giving kids a COVID-19 shot, Creech said that’s the message being conveyed by the absence of a recommendation.

“I would venture to say this isn't a political maneuver. This isn't trying to resurrect maybe some of the things that we did during the pandemic. This is just a chance to say older people and young people still have problems with COVID, just like they do with flu, just like they do with other respiratory viruses,” Creech said. “Let's give some guidance to pediatricians on how best to navigate that for the fall.”

Creech said children under the age of 2 are at higher risk of hospitalization from COVID-19, on par with the risk seen in older adults.

The AAP has been making vaccine recommendations for almost 100 years, Creech said. And the AAP “consolidated and harmonized” its recommendations with the CDC’s 30 years ago, simply endorsing what the CDC has advised.

But Kennedy, a noted vaccine skeptic, remade the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is the expert advisory panel that develops vaccine recommendations for the CDC.

Creech said the same level of trust isn’t there for the AAP in the CDC recommendations.

“It's extraordinary that we are in a situation where the American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading physician group that cares for and advocates for the health needs of children, has to issue guidelines that may stand in opposition to what our federal health agencies are recommending,” Nuzzo said.

There are fair debates to be had about vaccines, particularly around COVID-19 boosters this fall, she said.

But the risk COVID-19 presents to infants is not debatable, Nuzzo said.

And she said the efficacy of the shots isn’t debatable.

Public health “should be a team sport,” she said.

“And it's really, really unfortunate, because it in many ways puts parents in the position of having to kind of choose who they trust more, their kids’ doctors or their government,” Nuzzo said.