By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

Public health officials from eight northeastern states are looking to do an end run around CDC vaccine recommendations in response to recent changes to the agency’s recommended schedule, The Boston Globe reported.

The heads of public health departments from every New England state except New Hampshire, along with health officials in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, attended a two-day meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, to discuss coordinating their own vaccine recommendations, independent of the federal government.

They also discussed how to independently implement disease-tracking and emergency response services.

Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein — former senior adviser to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the Globe that the meeting was in part a response to changes in public health policies under the Trump administration.

Under Goldstein — a vocal critic of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a strong advocate for all vaccines — Massachusetts has been leading the resistance to health policy changes under the Trump administration, Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., told the Globe.

Osterholm is a former adviser to the Biden administration’s COVID-19 transition team and current director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota.

HHS: CDC remains ‘statutory authority guiding immunization policy in this country’

Although no concrete vaccination policy changes emerged from last week’s meeting, the meeting was “unusual,” and “marks a step toward independence from federal health agencies that a few years ago would have seemed unthinkable,” the Globe reported.

Goldstein said states could look to major medical associations to shape their vaccine policy, instead of the CDC.

He also said that a coordinated push from northeastern states could help compel insurers to cover the costs of the vaccines, which may not be covered if they are not on the CDC Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule.

Vaccines not on the schedule aren’t covered by the CDC Vaccines for Children Program, which pays for vaccines for more than half of American children. They also don’t enjoy the liability shield granted to vaccine makers under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 — something Kennedy pointed out in a post on X.

In response to last week’s meeting, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Press Secretary Emily Hilliard told The Defender that the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, “ACIP will continue to be the statutory authority guiding immunization policy in this country.”

Julie Booras, co-founder of Health Rights MA Advocacy, told The Defender the move was highly politicized. The formation of a partisan regional public health apparatus would pose a concerning threat to health freedom.

She said:

“Our health freedoms — and the health of our children — are being reduced to partisan gamesmanship. Instead of embracing accountability and true gold-standard science, these states are reacting to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership by doubling down on control and circling the wagons to protect their public health bureaucracies. It’s a stunning reversal from just last session, when they rammed through a bill compelling towns that take public health grant money to comply with national standards. Now, they’re doing a complete 180?

“The exclusion of New Hampshire, the only state in the region with a Republican governor, makes clear this move has little to do with science or health and everything to do with politics. And when you dig deeper, the motive becomes undeniable: follow the pharma money. These decisions are not about protecting people or public health — they are about protecting an industry, and that is an outrageous betrayal of public trust.”

The New Hampshire Department of Public Health did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment.

Broader move toward parallel nongovernmental vaccine infrastructure

The move comes as several other major Pharma-backed public health organizations have spoken out against recent and potential future changes in federal vaccine policy.

In May, Kennedy announced changes to the COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for children. The CDC now recommends “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and providers for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years.

The agency also changed its guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women, from recommended to “no guidance.”

In June, Kennedy also fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, citing conflicts of interest. He replaced them with seven new members, who continue to issue new recommendations on vaccination policy.

Earlier this month, HHS informed the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and seven other major medical associations that they would no longer participate in advising the CDC on vaccine policy, due to their own conflicts of interest. Major vaccine producers fund all of the groups.

Early last week, the AAP recommended the COVID-19 shots for infants, young children and children in “high-risk” groups — splitting for the first time in 30 years from the CDC on childhood vaccine recommendations.

Late last week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also reaffirmed its recommendation that pregnant women get vaccinated for COVID-19.

Both the AAP and ACOG are issuing their own vaccine recommendations in partnership with the Vaccine Integrity Project, a CIDRAP initiative, which includes vaccine manufacturers, health insurers and medical associations.

The Vaccine Integrity Project is leading discussions to develop an alternative nongovernmental vaccine system for recommendations and vaccine provisioning. The group is funded by iAlumbra, a nonprofit founded by Walmart heiress and billionaire philanthropist Christy Walton, known for her anti-Trump advocacy.

After the AAP issued its new recommendations last week, Kennedy responded on X, calling on the organization to acknowledge its conflicts of interest. He added that the organization “should also be candid with doctors and hospitals that recommendations that diverge from the CDC’s official list are not shielded from liability under the 1986

Vaccine Injury Act.”

Related articles in The Defender 

• Leading Pediatrician Group Defies CDC, Tells Parents to Get COVID Shots for Infants, Kids
• Washington Post Reports on ‘Plan to Vaccinate All Americans, Despite RFK Jr.’
• Pharma-Friendly Public Health Officials Launch New Project to ‘Shore Up U.S. Vaccination Policy’

The post Eight Northeast States Eye End Run Around CDC Vaccine Recommendations appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More