Health providers in Maine are urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision Monday to drop recommendations for several childhood vaccines.
The acting director of the U.S. CDC now says that vaccinations for meningitis, rotavirus, RSV, flu, and hepatitis A and B are now only recommended for high-risk groups or through what the administration calls "shared clinical decision making."
Dr. Laura Faherty of the Maine chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics says the changes are sending mixed messages that will jeopardize public health.
"As we see eroding confidence in vaccines and decreases in vaccination coverage, we're going to see increases in vaccine-preventable diseases," Faherty says. "We're going to see diseases that we really haven't seen before, or for a very long time in this country. We're going to have a lot of needless suffering and unfortunately, death."
Faherty adds that the childhood vaccination schedule has been well established and grounded in science.
"I feel very strongly that these sudden changes to vaccine recommendations didn't happen because the science suddenly changed," she says. "And pediatricians like me still recommend the full vaccine schedule that the American Academy of Pediatrics laid out."
The Maine Medical Association, the Maine Academy of Family Physicians, the Maine
Academy of Physician Associates, the Maine Osteopathic Association, and the Maine Public Health Association are also criticizing the changes. They're urging parents and others to talk to clinicians about the importance of vaccinations.
