Experts Dissect What Confusing New Vax Rules Could Mean for Kids, Parents
“There is just widespread confusion about, ‘What should I do as a parent? Who should I listen to?’” said Northe Saunders, executive director of the pro-vaccine advocacy organization American Families for Vaccines, formerly called SAFE Communities Coalition.
“American parents and American providers don’t actually know what the best recommendations are anymore,” he added, “and so that is going to lead to more hesitancy, because there’s uncertainty about what the right thing to do is, and that’s going to lead to declining immunization rates.”
Before the ACIP meeting, MMRV and hepatitis B vaccine recommendations were based on decades of established practices supported by science, which experts described as “settled,” so it was unclear why they were being relitigated, according to numerous medical professionals, including those who spoke during the meetings as well as those interviewed by The 74.
The point of these conversations is, “to raise doubt, to confuse people,” said Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit was instrumental in the creation of the rotavirus vaccine and previously served as an ACIP member.