{"id":4283,"date":"2025-06-22T04:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T04:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/4283\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T04:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T04:08:07","slug":"how-doctors-are-preparing-for-rfk-jr-s-shifts-on-vaccine-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/4283\/","title":{"rendered":"How doctors are preparing for RFK Jr.\u2019s shifts on vaccine policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Published<\/p>\n

2025-06-20 10:01<\/p>\n

10:01<\/p>\n

June 20, 2025<\/p>\n

am<\/p>\n

When it comes to vaccines, there are two kinds of parents coming into Dr. Megan Prior\u2019s office in Washington, D.C., these days.<\/p>\n

One set are parents who pepper the pediatrician with increasingly panicked questions about the future availability of vaccines and whether their children can get any shots early. Then there are the parents who feel vindicated in their decision not to vaccinate their kids, despite vaccines\u2019 overall safety and record of disease prevention<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like I have these two groups of diverging patients, where some are really, really worried about their access and want to get things done as soon as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then others are sort of in this vaccine hesitant category.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both groups have been spurred by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s HHS shakeups could have huge implications for vaccine policy in America. Earlier this month, he fired all 17 members of a key vaccine panel and replaced them with a smaller group of people who in some cases lack relevant experience and who, like him, have been skeptical of vaccines<\/a>. He claims<\/a> the vaccine panel firings were aimed at addressing members\u2019 conflicts of interest, even though they worked under a comprehensive policy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Physicians who treat both children and families say they\u2019re frustrated with Kennedy\u2019s unprecedented firing of the panel known as the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) \u2014 and they\u2019re concerned about what it might mean for the future availability of safe and effective vaccines.<\/p>\n

For now, doctors are figuring out as a medical community how they can keep their patients healthy with evidence-based guidelines. They\u2019re turning to each other \u2014 through membership in trusted organizations that are taking joint actions \u2014 and figuring out how to give patients reliable information amid uncertainty about the government\u2019s next steps.<\/p>\n

ACIP\u2019s review of vaccines and subsequent guidance, under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, helps insurance companies determine vaccine coverage. A change to ACIP recommendations could have the ripple effect of making a vaccine more expensive to obtain, or more difficult to access through doctors\u2019 offices and pharmacies. The new panel has not taken any actions yet, but its members are scheduled to next week. Vaccine experts say they\u2019re watching closely to see what policy changes, if any, might emerge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were a mom, and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018What do I do for my kid right now?\u2019 I want to be confident that my primary care physician, my family doctor or my pediatrician was making recommendations based on what we know from science and not based on what the insurance company will or will not pay for, or what politics is saying,\u201d said Dr. Jen Brull, a longtime family physician who is now president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)<\/a>. \u201cI think it\u2019s very safe to say that you can look to your primary care physician for that kind of recommendation, and that\u2019s what you should be looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior, who has long used ACIP and CDC guidance on vaccines to answer questions from parents, said she recently downloaded a version of the current children\u2019s vaccination schedule that includes recommendations made by the fired vaccine panel, \u201cjust in case there are any changes, so I can remember exactly how wording looked.\u201d She is creating a list of trusted sources, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)<\/a> and AAFP, so she can monitor how they mirror or pivot from future government actions.<\/p>\n

Other vaccine experts have announced their own initiative<\/a> to protect the integrity of vaccine policy, information and access.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, there\u2019s a lot of us who are super interested in evidence-based science that will ensure that physicians and families have access to the right recommendations, no matter how politicized things get,\u201d Prior said.<\/p>\n

Around the same time that news about Kennedy\u2019s ACIP firings broke, hundreds of doctors were gathered in Chicago for a key meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA)<\/a>, the largest association of physicians, representing more than 190 state and specialty medical societies. Within hours after the firings were public, Brull and representatives from several major medical groups drafted an emergency resolution<\/a> that called on Kennedy to reverse his actions on the vaccine panel and also requested a Senate investigation into the firings. The resolution passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe emotion in the room was that everyone who was there cared about this \u2014 but we wanted to make sure that the AMA, that our individual organizations, were speaking truth,\u201d Brull said.<\/p>\n

Dr. David Higgins, a pediatrician and spokesperson for AAP, said the recent dismantling of expertise on ACIP threatens a clarity that has developed over decades within the medical community when it comes to vaccinations.<\/p>\n

AAP has been issuing vaccine guidance since 1935, nearly three decades before ACIP was created. To help reduce confusion, both entities officially began publishing harmonized guidance on vaccines in 1995. The consistency helped streamline care for families and reduced discrepancies as combination vaccines became more widely available, according to Higgins.<\/p>\n

AAP still maintains its own expert review process for its vaccine schedule, and Higgins said the organization plans to keep issuing recommendations that are \u201cgrounded in science and committed to child health.\u201d He worries about potentially conflicting recommendations in the future, and how that might raise public confusion and distrust.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents we talk with are understandably anxious and unsure,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cOur parents and families have a lot of questions, and as pediatricians, we welcome those questions. Pediatricians want to partner with parents and meet them where they are with compassion, clarity, and credible information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brull also wanted to emphasize that point from the lens of family physicians, who sometimes see generations of one family and can be a key source of evidence-based medical information, especially in rural areas with more limited health coverage options.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy foundational advice to parents and kids who are old enough to have these conversations on their own is that the best thing most people can do is reach out and talk to their primary care doctor \u2014 whether that\u2019s their pediatrician or their family physician, and have a conversation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Prior, who shares her views on health policy news on social media<\/a>, does not want to minimize the implications of ACIP\u2019s new membership and what it could mean if they pull a safe vaccine from the immunization schedules for adults or children. She still distinctly remembers her constant worry about whether her young child could access a COVID-19 vaccine, and the transition to in-person schooling and re-entering more public spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we live in a world where measles is incredibly common<\/a>, where whooping cough is incredibly common<\/a>, where these really infectious diseases are just part of our lives again, parents will have to go through those decisions again,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that piece of it makes me so frustrated. I know how frustrating it was to be a parent in COVID, and I do not wish that stress on anyone. It\u2019s doubly frustrating that this stress we would be putting on ourselves is 100 percent preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n