WASHINGTON, D.C. — Evaluating the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule has been one of the priorities of the second Trump administration, particularly for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy.
Most recently, on December 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and its vaccine advisory panel—the Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—voted to delay the Hepatitis B vaccine. The panel recommended waiting until at least 2 months of age to administer the vaccine, which for decades had been given within the first 24 hours of a newborn’s life.
While millions of Americans are vaccinated against various diseases every year in the U.S., Dr. Monique Yohanan—Independent Women senior fellow, mom, a physician and public health expert with decades of experience—believes “not all vaccines are equally important in terms of either public health or individual health.”
In the midst of unanswered questions and a need for clarity, particularly when it comes to vaccinating America’s youth, Independent Women released a paper in August authored by Dr. Yohanan, titled “Rethinking Vaccine Policy: A Case for Humility, Precision, and Parental Partnership,” which calls for a recalibration of America’s vaccine policy.
To expand on these ideas and serve as a resource for families trying to navigate conflicting health information, Dr. Yohanan spoke with Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, for a two-part documentary series, titled “A Dose of Humility.”
Today, IW Features published part two—“A Dose of Humility: The Trade-Offs and Economics of Vaccines”—where Dr. Yohanan hones in on the financial incentives of large-scale vaccines in comparison to the scientific necessity of mass vaccination.
“What are vaccines best at? Eradicating disease, breaking transmission, preventing disease, and saving lives, ultimately. This is what we hope, right?” Dr. Yohanan said in the documentary. “We hope to save lives, and we hope to decrease morbidity, the sickness, and the burden of disease. But there’s a lot of economics in it, in so many ways.”
“Childhood vaccine schedules work best when they focus on answering three questions before adding a vaccine to the universal schedule: First, is the disease common in childhood? Second, is it a serious disease in children? And third, will vaccinating the population as a whole provide community-wide protection?” said Dr. Monique Yohanan. “Most countries require a ‘yes’ to all three, but in the United States, we haven’t had the same rigor and consistency. When we lose that focus, we risk undermining uptake of the vaccines that matter most for true community protection.”
In November, IW Features published part one—“A Dose of Humility: The Promise and Purpose of Vaccines”—detailing the different roles that vaccines play in protecting communities and individuals.
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