Vaccine Safety: Examine the Evidence Vaccines for kids are studied closely before the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends them. Safety evidence is gathered when a new vaccine is made and after it is authorized.

(for real evidence of the safety of #vaccines, see this great website from the AAP)

This one might be my favorite. I feel like they might be missing one key reason why the smallpox vaccine isn't given anymore...

No more smallpox! (Thanks to #vaccines!)

And then, ironically, there was a "natural foods" store distributing these pamphlets inside the market just across the street. Did you know that polio is caused by DDT? And here I was thinking it was caused by a virus this whole time!

An old mural of a man in a blue coat labeled "Dr. Kennedy" and a child in a yellow dress looking up at him. Text reads: "1799. Dr. Kennedy he waxanate the children with matter A remedy to cure the smallpox."

Found a #vaccine mural downtown in #YorkPA while home for the holidays. I believe that these murals are based on drawings by Lewis Miller, Pennsylvania Dutch folk artist from the early 19th century.

White text on red background with PIDS logo at bottom

The Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society has issued the following statement on our deep concerns regarding the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices December meeting and its impact on public health in the United States.
pids.org/2025/12/05/p...

WCHA disagrees with CDC’s Advisory Committee’s change to decades-long vaccine recommendation that has reduced pediatric hepatitis B infections by 99 percent.
doh.wa.gov/newsroom/wes...

The ACIP decision to discontinue the recommendation for a universal hepatitis B birth dose vaccine will cause harm.

As the federal government continues to fail children's health, families can rely on our nation's physicians to continue to put children's health first.

Analysis of the latest ACIP meeting at the CDC: Vaccines—and rigorous science—are increasingly under attack. A close look at how the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee under RFK Jr. again changed high-stakes recommendations without solid evidence.

Friends, Yesterday and today, I watched many hours of the CDC’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

It was painful.

But we learned a lot.

That bad news is that our kids are going to pay the price for RFK jr’s views.

insidemedicine.substack.com/p/analysis-o...

Blackburn clarifies that she is voting "yes for VFC to have coverage for what it needs to have coverage for", though it's unclear what that means nor whether that's what is actually being voted on. Final vote is 7 yes, 4 abstain.

Multiple members including Hibblen, Pagano, Meissner abstain, noting that they don't actually know what they're voting on or what the ramifications would be of a vote either way.

Meanwhile a totally different slide is shown indicating that the "purpose of the resolution is to update the Recommended Vaccination Schedule and Intervals section to reflect the updated ACIP recommendations about the use of Hepatitis B vaccine".

Malone in midst of the vote, after several people have already voted: "what is at hand is the vote to adopt the ACIP recommendations into the Vaccines for Children program". Has to be corrected: "It is actually to approve the VFC resolution that was presented yesterday".

The vote is to "approve the updated VFC resolution for prevention of hepatitis B".

Malone calls for a bathroom break and has to be reminded that there's a third vote. There's now a third vote but several members, including Malone, do not appear to have any idea what the language is that they're voting on or what it would entail. Absolute scenes.

No votes: Pollak, Meissner, Blackburn, Hibbeln. Stein abstains.

#ACIP votes 6-4 to recommend that children could just get one dose of vaccine and then have post-vaccination serologic testing to see if more vaccines should be given. Multiple members remind the committee that there have been no studies or evidence to understand if this strategy would work.

Now, after a bewildering discussion where members of the ACIP committee appear to not understand the difference between live viral vaccines like yellow fever and inactivated vaccines like hepatitis B, the committee votes on a recommendation to deviate from the established 3-dose primary series.

Joseph Hibbeln: "This has a great potential to cause harm, and I simply hope that this committee will accept its responsiblity when this harm is caused -- and I vote no."

Roger Malone: "Roger that."

Dr. Cody Meissner, #pediatric #id doctor (the only one on #ACIP), reflecting on the committee's mandate to first do no harm: "We are doing harm by changing this wording, and I vote no."

New review finds no evidence to support delaying universal hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination

#ACIP votes to change the #hepatitisB #vaccine birth dose recommendation, ending the universal birth dose policies that have almost eliminated neonatal hepatitis B infection, cut pediatric infections by more than 95%, and prevented more than 6 million infections / a million hospitalizations.

This article calls on global stakeholders to standardize definitions of timeliness and integrate timeliness into routine monitoring, so that all children can optimally benefit from the protection of vaccines.

Timeliness is currently underexamined due to inconsistent definitions, poor data quality (like missing birth dates), and a lack of fine-scale estimates to track how timeliness varies within countries.

Comparison of improvements to coverage and improvements to timeliness. In countries with low immunisation coverage (A and B, solid line), improvements to coverage (A, dashed line) result in more child-months of protection during childhood (green shaded area) than improvements to timeliness (B, dashed line and green shaded area). In countries with high coverage (C and D), however, improvements to coverage (C) may result in fewer child-months of protection gained than improvements to timeliness (D).

Timeliness is important everywhere, but may be particularly important in places with relatively high coverage, to make sure that children are protected by vaccines before they are exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Current #immunization programs primarily track vaccination coverage (the percentage of children vaccinated), but this metric hides critical gaps like doses given too early or too late. Vaccination #timeliness -- receiving doses within the optimal, age-appropriate window -- is not as well tracked.

Vaccination timeliness is a key measure of immunisation system performance: A call to address priority research, policy and practice issues

Congratulations to Oghenebrume Wariri, MD, PhD for this new publication in Vaccine:X: "Vaccination timeliness is a key measure of immunisation system performance: A call to address priority research, policy and practice issues". Very thankful to have been part of this authorship team.

Seattle has one of the biggest Somali populations in the country. I've had the privilege to work with loving, hardworking Somali families and patients + caring, brilliant Somali doctors during my time here. They belong here in our communities. Bigotry and xenophobia do not.

Thanks to @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social for the opportunity to publish these updated estimates.

Author Share link for the Lancet ID paper on the global, regional, and national burden of Chagas disease (free access for the next 50 days) authors.elsevier.com/a/1m2hA5E-Uo...

Permanent link to the paper directly on the Lancet ID website: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Thank you to our multinational team of GBD 2023 Chagas Disease Collaborators, the RAISE Study, and our NTDs team at IHME for collaborating to produce this critical, updated analysis!

To get better estimates, we need improved data quality, including adequate coding to prevent misclassification of Chagas deaths and better estimates of the true population at risk. Sustained funding for screening, treatment, and improved data collection is crucial to mitigate #Chagas disease burden.