Dr. Molly O’Shea has noticed growing skepticism about vaccines at both of her Michigan pediatric offices and says this week’s unprecedented and confusing changes to federal vaccine guidance will only make things worse.
One of her offices is in a Democratic area, where more of the parents she sees are opting for alternative schedules that spread out shots. The other is in a Republican area, where some parents have stopped immunizing their children altogether.
She and other doctors fear the new recommendations and the terminology around them will stoke vaccine hesitancy even more, pose challenges for pediatricians and parents that make it harder for kids to get shots, and ultimately lead to more illness and death.
The biggest change was to stop blanket recommendations for protection against six diseases and recommend those vaccines only for at-risk children or through something called “shared clinical decision-making” with a health care provider.
The phrase, experts say, is confusing and dangerous: “It sends a message to a parent that actually there’s only a rarefied group of people who really need the vaccine,” O’Shea said. “It’s creating an environment that puts a sense of uncertainty about the value and necessity or importance of the vaccines in that category.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and over 200 medical, public health, and patient advocacy groups recently expressed their alarm with a letter to Congress, urging an investigation into the rationale behind the changes.
Dr. O’Shea believes that the confusion could lead to fewer vaccinations as parents become unsure of their choices. “Relying on evidence and trusted medical guidance helps me to make those decisions,” says Megan Landry, mother of a four-year-old patient of Dr. O’Shea, emphasizing the community's need for vaccination.
As concerns about declining vaccination rates grow, experts continue to advocate for the unchanged vaccine schedule to help protect children from preventable diseases.
