Editorial: Marin holds the line on child vaccines

The Trump administration’s top health officials have introduced a large dose of confusion into the debate over childhood vaccinations.

For many years, the debate has been over shots versus no shots.

Marin has seen this debate take place close to home when the county had one of the nation’s lowest rates of unvaccinated kids. The local vaccination rate was 82%. It has since climbed to 97%, among the highest in the United States.

Washington’s recent advice – reducing the recommended schedule of childhood vaccines to 11, from 18 – is no help, either to parents who want to do what is right for their children or to medical care providers whose science-based recommendations have been challenged by anti-vaccination advocates.

The new recommended schedule of vaccinations has been advanced by U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who before joining President Donald Trump’s team was a leading voice among vaccination critics.

In June, Kennedy set the stage for these changes, removing all 17 members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The new recommended schedule, Kennedy says, is modeled after an “international consensus.”

Yet, the previous schedule is almost identical to those recommended in Canada, Britain, Australia and Germany.

It is important that the new schedule still recommends vaccines against measles, polio and whooping cough for all kids. Those vaccines have proven histories of preventing the spread of those debilitating, if not deadly, illnesses.

Still, Washington’s revised advice fuels mistrust and confusion.

Vaccine schedules are set by states, not by Washington, and state and local medical care officials are not following Kennedy’s advice.

Health-saving vaccines should be guided by science, not politics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Department of Public Health and the West Coast Health Alliance, a multi-state organization, have endorsed the state’s vaccine schedule that was formed by research and long-demonstrated effectiveness. Vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics continue to be covered by state-regulated health plans and insurers.

Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County’s public health officer, is also standing firmly by the previous schedule.

“While ongoing federal actions related to vaccines create confusion at the national level, they do not change the scientific evidence or our recommendations here in Marin County,” she said. “The existing childhood immunization schedule reflects decades of independent scientific review and remains the best way to protect children, families, and the broader community.”

Dr. Santora’s strong advice is solid and clear.

But the schedules now recommended by Washington – those for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus and even COVID-19 are now recommended only for high-risk patients and after consultation with a health provider.

In fact, the pediatric academy was stripped of its federal funding after it recommended COVID-19 shots despite Kennedy’s earlier announcement that the COVID vaccine would be dropped from the federally recommended schedule.

Still, the academy has stood by its recommendation, stressing that Washington’s new advice is based on “a brief review.”

“The action breaks from a process designed to carefully review and recommend childhood vaccines — one that considers risks from specific diseases in the U.S., health impacts and how our health care system works,” the academy says on its website.

Vaccines are a proven tool to not only protect individuals, but help prevent the spread of illnesses to others.

That equation has been proven over and over. The COVID-19 vaccine is the latest example. Recent years’ increase in measles outbreak – as more parents have balked at having their children vaccinated against the illness – is another.

Vaccines are not about politics; they are about science.

Scientific findings and recommendations provided by politically independent medical researchers, physicians and public health leaders provide the clearest course.

Dr. Santora’s advice is clear — crystal clear. It is sad that she has to devote her energy to refuting the seeds of doubt and confusion sown by Kennedy and his entourage.