New Vaccine Recommendations

Plus: the difficulties of rebuilding trust in public health, Maduro’s arraignment, and U.S. threats against Greenland, and more…

Vaccines that guard against diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella will continue to be recommended for all children. Vaccines for another six diseases, including the seasonal flu and Hepatitis B, will now be recommended only for high-risk populations or based on “shared clinical decision making” between a doctor and patient.

That review looked at 20 other countries’ vaccine schedules, including the likes of Germany, Japan, and Denmark, all of which recommend fewer vaccines be routinely administered to all children.

“The data support a more focused schedule that protects children from the most serious infectious diseases while improving clarity, adherence, and public confidence,” said acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill in a statement.

The HHS stressed on Monday that all 17 vaccines, including those no longer recommended for all children, will still be covered at no out-of-pocket cost to patients by government and private health insurance plans.

Trust regained? As such, the practical implications of Monday’s decision would appear to be exceedingly minor.

According to the HHS, the purpose of the reduced schedule was to improve public trust in vaccine recommendations that was lost by the past administration’s overzealous recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for children.

“Inaccurate CDC claims that the COVID-19 vaccine would prevent infection and transmission eroded public trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. The loss of trust in the COVID vaccines coincided with less adherence to the full CDC childhood vaccine schedule, which has resulted in lower immunization rates of well-established vaccines,” reads Monday’s decision memo authored by the heads of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The memo goes on to argue that aligning American vaccination recommendations with the “consensus” recommendations of other developed nations would rebuild trust and increase vaccine uptake.

It’s certainly true that the public health establishment forfeited a lot of public trust during the pandemic by embracing maximalist COVID precautions and coercive mandates needed to enforce them, without evidence supporting their efficacy or much concern for the loss of freedom and personal decision making that those mandates entailed.

This coerciveness and highhandedness produced a vicious backlash that ended up with arch–vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the country’s top health official.

While some might revel in that irony, it’s beyond a doubt that Kennedy’s elevation has produced a trust problem of its own. The man has a long history of crank views and crazy statements. He’s continued to express a lot of them while in office.

As such, the changing of the CDC vaccination schedule to align with other European countries (which carries with it minimal practical implications) is now being treated as an all-out war on vaccines by the media and public health experts.

A calmer, more rational discussion of the risks and benefits of particular vaccines remains elusive.

Maduro in court, chaos in Caracas: Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were both arraigned on charges related to drug trafficking in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

The ousted Venezuelan leader entered a not-guilty plea while denouncing the U.S. military operation that captured him and his wife in their Caracas home.

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,” said Maduro in the courtroom, while Venezuelan immigrants gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate the dictator’s capture.

Meanwhile, regime officials in Venezuela remain on edge. Gunfire erupted in Caracas overnight, which officials say was directed at “unauthorized” drones flying over the city.

President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC on Monday that we are not at war with Venezuela and that the government, now led by Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was “cooperating” with the U.S.

The president said that elections in Venezuela would not happen soon, saying that “it’s going to take a period of time. We have to nurse the country back to health.”

Scenes from D.C.: Celebrations of America’s 250th birthday started a little early yesterday with a fireworks display on the National Mall.

QUICK HITS

• While U.S. vaccine recommendations are becoming more Danish, Trump administration officials are talking about making Greenland a lot less Danish. In a CNN interview yesterday, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller told Jake Tapper that Greenland, the semiautonomous island currently controlled by Denmark, should “obviously” be part of the United States.

• U.S. immigration officials are complaining that a Minnesota hotel canceled reservations made by immigration agents being deployed to the Minneapolis area, raising the tantalizing possibility of a bona fide Third Amendment case.

• Scandal-plagued Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says that he will no longer seek a third term as governor. Good riddance, says Reason‘s Robby Soave.
• Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, appear to arrest a woman protesting the U.S. capture of Maduro mid-interview.

• Some 19 states implement laws raising their minimum wage, unemployment rates.

Reporter, Reason

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