Axios - America's vaccine policy has been set for decades, with patients, providers, scientists and insurers more or less in sync on the merits of immunizations. In the last several weeks, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has upended long-standing norms, introducing uncertainty into a once-reliable system.
Access to health care may shift in unpredictable ways. At worst, infectious diseases once thought to be eradicated could return.
Kennedy sent shockwaves through the medical community two weeks ago with a controversial decision to stop recommending the COVID vaccine to healthy kids and healthy pregnant women. The CDC contradicted this just days later, recommending that healthy kids do get the COVID shot.
Confusion escalated this week, when Kennedy abruptly dismissed all 17 members of the expert panel that wields a great deal of power in shaping vaccine policy and makes recommendations to the CDC. Some of the eight new members Kennedy quickly named have expressed anti-vaccine sentiment in the past.
Together, these changes represent a sharp break from public health precedent — and raise questions about what happens next....
The COVID vaccine could just be the beginning. The CDC advisory panel members picked by Kennedy thus far are more aligned with his skeptical views of vaccines.
- They could radically reshape — or even scrap — national vaccine recommendations, including those for kids.
- They could also require more testing of new vaccines for safety and efficacy, which could have upstream effects — discouraging academic labs and drug companies from pursuing vaccine research and development.
Big changes in America's vaccine policy come amid a major cultural shift. Vaccine skepticism is on the rise, and more kindergartners are showing up to school with exemptions. Share this
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