The Feb. 24 online article “As measles cases climb, these 9 diseases threaten comebacks” left the impression that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has broadly weakened the childhood immunization schedule. That implication is misleading.
Vaccines against most of the diseases highlighted in the article remain in the routine schedule. Those core protections have not been removed. Where recommendations have shifted, they involve diseases with very different epidemiology. Chronic hepatitis B affects fewer than 1 percent of pregnant women in the United States. Rotavirus, while common, is rarely life-threatening here. Moving certain vaccines into shared decision-making reflects proportionality, not abandonment.
Public health communication should distinguish between highly contagious community threats such as measles and diseases that are rare or concentrated. Precision matters if we are to have the trust we need to engage parents in vaccination.
Monique Yohanan, Washington
The writer is a senior fellow for health policy at Independent Women.