Local public health officials across the country worry this week’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meeting on vaccines could lead to lower vaccination rates and access.
The CDC’s Advisory Council on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, meets Thursday and Friday with several discussion topics on the agenda – including the childhood immunization schedule and the hepatitis B vaccine.
Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said it’s hard to know the effect this meeting could have on access.
“It really depends on…what wording ACIP makes and then that interpretation of CDC or how payers, or insurers then respond to that,” Huang said during a webinar hosted by the Big Cities Health Coalition – a group of health officials from the largest cities in the country.
Officials said they’re worried ACIP could make changes that would make certain vaccines, like the one for Hepatitis B, less accessible for families.
ACIP recommendations are used to inform what insurers cover, but how states engage with those recommendations varies. For some states, any new ACIP recommendation automatically changes state law. For others, it requires state-level action.
“It could look different almost in every community, actually,” said BCHC chair Raynard Washington, an epidemiologist in North Carolina. “Which is why federal policy is so important and shouldn't be changed with a keystroke.”
If providers aren’t sure if a vaccine will be covered by insurers, they may hesitate to offer it. Similar to the confusion created by the new ACIP COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, that could mean vaccines become more complicated to access.
For infections like hepatitis B, even small delays in access can lead to less protection against preventable diseases. Huang said up to 90% of infants infected with hepatitis B at birth develop the chronic version of the condition.
“The birth dose is really the single most effective tool that we have to prevent lifelong chronic [hepatitis B] infection,” Huang said. “The current schedule that we've had, it's reduced U.S. hepatitis B infection rates by more than 90%. ...Any infants who miss that birth dose, they're three to four times more likely to remain unvaccinated by 18 months.”
ACIP’s meeting comes after the Food and Drug Administration recently announced changes to the vaccine approval process and the CDC updated its website claiming a debunked link between vaccines and autism can’t be ruled out. Public health leaders, doctors and medical researchers have pushed back against this change, saying it’s a “harmful myth.”
“I'm not aware of any additional or new data, and I can't imagine there's really anything compelling out there,” Huang said. “It does seem aligned more with the political agenda…Sort of firing all the ACIP members and putting people that maybe have sort of more political agendas on the panel is very concerning.”
In June, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy replaced the 17 members of ACIP, all of whom had been appointed by the Biden administration.
Huang said DCHHS has worked hard to continue offering immunizations to people in the Dallas area, but the department has had to deal with a loss of funding, staff cuts and the confusion created by federal conversations about vaccines.
Washington said most of the people who haven’t gotten vaccinated aren’t “resistant” to them, they just have additional access barriers.
“The majority of Americans still fully support childhood immunizations, and the majority of our residents are still keeping their kids updated on vaccines,” Washington said. “It is a shame that we're in a space and time where it seems that political mischief is driving the narrative around vaccines.”
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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