New vaccine recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday call for separate varicella (chickenpox) and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines to be administered to toddlers. It also updated “adult and child immunization schedules to apply individual-based decision-making to COVID-19 vaccination.”
A Monday press release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explained that the new immunization schedule guidance adopts “recent recommendations by the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).” These recommendations were approved by Acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill last week and were updated this Tuesday.
“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.”
O’Neill replaced former CDC director Susan Monarez over the summer. According to reports, Monarez and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (a known vaccine skeptic) sparred over vaccine policy before her tenure at the agency ended. FactCheck.org has also reported that Kennedy “made several unsupported or misleading claims about the measles vaccine,” in an interview earlier this year.
Per the HHS, the move to recommend chicken pox vaccination without MMR vaccination “follows evidence to the ACIP by the CDC Immunization Safety Office’s that healthy 12-23-month-old toddlers have increased risk of febrile seizure seven to 10 days after vaccination,” for the combined MMR vaccine compared to chickenpox vaccine alone.
While the combined chickenpox and MMR vaccine is not recommended, CDC vaccine recommendations as of Tuesday showed MMR vaccines on the recommended list for children age 4 through age 6. This year, more than 40 outbreaks of measles have popped up across the country, with most cases being diagnosed in patients who were not vaccinated. So far, three deaths have been reported.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) also announced Tuesday that it is “launching six new guides designed to support health workers and other professionals in identifying and responding to vaccine misinformation.”
In Texas, where the measles outbreaks first started, Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the Texas Medical Association – the state’s leading physician organization – of “skirting new federal recommendations regarding vaccines” this Monday, according to the Texas Tribune. The Center for Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota said Tuesday that new research revealed “broad disparities at the school level, of vaccination in Texas helped fuel the measles outbreaks.
As for COVID-19 vaccination, the HHS said that just 23% of adults followed the CDC’s most recent seasonal booster recommendation according to its National Immunization Survey. During the primary COVID-19 vaccination series, part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS), nearly 85% of the U.S. adult population got vaccinated against the virus.
“The booster shots prompted widespread risk-benefit concerns about their safety and efficacy as the COVID-19 virus became endemic following population-wide immunity acquired during the pandemic and OWS,” said the HHS.
Per the ACIP recommendations, people under age 65 who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 would benefit the most for additional rounds of COVID-19 vaccine. The HHS said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has approved marketing authorization for COVID-19 vaccines for individuals who have one or more of these risk factors, as well as for individuals age 65 and older.”
Overall, the HHS said that the changes mean “that the clinical decision to vaccinate should be based on patient characteristics that unlike age are difficult to incorporate in recommendations, including risk factors for the underlying disease as well as the characteristics of the vaccine itself and the best available evidence of who may benefit from vaccination.”
Following the announcement, the American Healthcare Association/National Center for Assisted Living said that “giving the timing, providers should be ordering the [COVID-19] vaccine and/or planning their clinics.”