Medical Organizations, States Formulating Their Own Vaccine Recommendations For Fall Respiratory Illness Season

Reuters (7/24, Steenhuysen) reports the HHS Secretary’s “changes to federal vaccine policy are prompting medical organizations and several states to formulate their own vaccine recommendations for the fall respiratory illness season, concerned many healthy children and pregnant women could lose access to preventive shots.” The “push for an alternative standard to the one set by the federal government runs the risk of increasing confusion among providers and patients, according to health experts.” The effort “also runs up against hundreds of laws at the state level that rely on a federal vaccine advisory panel, the experts said.” The Washington Post (7/24, Sun, Weber, Roubein) reports that for individuals “65 and older or who are immunocompromised, their access to vaccines seems most secure because virtually all vaccine recommendations consider those groups to be at the highest risk for severe illness and death.” However, “the future of access is more uncertain for healthy adults and children.”