Latest news with #vaccineadvisory
Medscape
23-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Avoiding the COVID Shot Talk? Here's What to Do
Do you hesitate to bring up COVID vaccines with your patients? You're not alone — and experts said these conversations are becoming less common in routine care. The reasons are complex, ranging from short visit times and shifting clinical priorities to the health attitudes of both physicians and patients — and something Arthur Caplan, PhD, head of the Ethics Division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, called 'COVID exhaustion.' Arthur Caplan, PhD 'There is a feeling that everybody who's going to get COVID either got it or got vaccinated or doesn't want [the shot],' said Caplan. But your silence can leave patients feeling unsure about what to do. New CDC guidance for COVID boosters — and even baseline vaccination — for healthy people (including children) has shifted toward shared clinical decision-making. What does that mean? According to the now-fired CDC vaccine advisory panel, shared clinical decision-making means 'informed by the best available evidence of who may benefit from vaccination; the individual's characteristics, values, and preferences; the healthcare provider's clinical discretion; and the characteristics of the vaccine being considered.' The panel added, 'There is not a prescribed set of considerations or decision points in the decision-making process.' In other words, you're on your own. All the major US physician organizations still recommend the shots for everyone 6 months and older. Amid widespread misinformation about the vaccines' risks and lack of benefit, there's another reason providers should bring them up — protecting those most at risk for severe COVID, Caplan said. 'We're so individualistic, so focused on personal choice, so focused on the individual, that we're undercutting a moral basis or the ethical basis for vaccination, which is the community,' he said. Surveys consistently showed that more people say they plan to get COVID vaccines than actually do, and the barriers throttling that conversion rate are unclear. If you find yourself hesitating to bring up the COVID vaccine, ask yourself why — so you can thoughtfully address that hesitation in practice. Why You Don't Bring Up COVID Shots With Healthy Patients Timothy Callaghan, PhD First, the elephant in the room: Many people are hesitant to talk about COVID vaccines because of how politically charged the topic has become, and clinicians are no exception. 'Physicians may be hesitant to bring up any topics that might induce partisan beliefs and lead people to be less trusting of seeking out medical care,' said Timothy Callaghan, PhD, associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, and an expert in vaccine hesitancy and health behavior. 'They might forego discussing those to make sure they're doing everything they can to keep patients engaged with the healthcare system so that they can keep them safe and healthy.' Jen Brull, MD Another key challenge is the topic's complexity. 'Sometimes those conversations need to be lengthy to let people feel comfortable that their questions were answered, their fears were addressed, the confusion was resolved,' said Jen Brull, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. 'In a 10- or 15-minute office visit, you might say, 'Do I want to open this Pandora's box today? Do I have time to do this? How late am I?'' In the pediatric setting, parents' perception is often that COVID is generally well-tolerated by healthy children, and they view COVID vaccines differently than they do vaccines that are required for school, said Jesse Hackell, MD, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Workforce. 'If I've got a kid who needs the measles vaccine and the COVID vaccine, I don't want to poison the atmosphere for the measles vaccine by pushing the COVID vaccine,' Hackell said. Your move? Don't wait for the Pandora's box moment. Start preparing now. Your Vaccine Recommendation Plan You may not be thinking about your fall vaccine campaign yet, but now is the time to plan — before an unexpected surge leaves you unprepared. Jesse Hackell, MD One exception to fall timing is baseline vaccination of 6-month-olds, Hackell said. Data show the risk for severe illness during the first year is high, so these babies should get vaccinated 'as soon as possible.' Otherwise, here are some ways to incorporate COVID vaccine recommendations both in and outside the clinic:
Wall Street Journal
13-06-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
How Scientific Journals Became MAGA's Latest Target
The Trump administration's attack on scientific institutions has been characteristically audacious: Eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development, which funded healthcare interventions and research worldwide. Removing all the members of the vaccine advisory panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cutting healthcare research funding by $1.8 billion and overall funding for the National Institutes of Health by $3 billion. It has also homed in on what might seem like a small-bore opponent: the highly specialized world of science and medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Wall Street Journal
10-06-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
RFK Jr. Conducts His Vaccine Purge
We'd like to conclude we were wrong to oppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Health and Human Services Department, but alas, no. The latest evidence is his purge of a vaccine advisory panel. Mr. Kennedy announced his not-so-clean sweep of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in these pages on Tuesday. The panel of outside experts advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine schedules. Its recommendations determine which vaccines insurers must cover without patient cost-sharing.
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Kennedy Removes All C.D.C. Vaccine Panel Experts
The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Monday retired all 17 members of an advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing that the move would restore the public's trust in vaccines. He made the announcement on Monday in an opinion column for The Wall Street Journal. The C.D.C.'s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data on vaccines, debate the evidence and vote on who should get the shots and when. Insurance companies are required to cover the vaccines recommended by the panel. This is the latest in a series of moves Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has made to drastically reshape policy on immunizations. A vaccine panel more closely aligned with Mr. Kennedy's views has the potential to significantly alter the immunizations recommended to Americans, including childhood vaccinations. Mr. Kennedy said the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, 'has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest.' 'The public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies,' he said. 'This will ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.' He has previously claimed that 97 percent of ACIP members had financial conflicts of interest. But the statistic came from a 2009 report, and a review found that 97 percent of the disclosure forms had errors, such as missing dates or information in the wrong section, not significant financial conflicts. 'I think R.F.K. Jr is a conspiracy theorist, and that's what this document is about,' said Dr. Paul Offit, who serves as an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration. 'It's about the undue influence from Big Pharma,' Dr. Offit said. 'This is a message that he has been putting out there for the last 20 years.' In fact, ACIP members are carefully screened for major conflicts of interest, and they cannot hold stocks or serve on advisory boards or speaker bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers. On the rare occasion that members have indirect conflicts of interest — for example, if an institution at which they work receives money from a drug manufacturer — they disclose the conflict and recuse themselves from related votes. As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Kennedy has the authority to add or remove members of the panel. Without removing the current members, the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028, he wrote.
