The ongoing measles outbreak in South Carolina is spreading in the general population, unlike previous outbreaks in closed communities. This is enabled by pockets of extremely low vaccination, with some schools reporting rates as low as 20%, far below the 95% needed for herd immunity, creating fertile ground for the virus.
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A top CDC political appointee, Dr. Ralph Abraham, publicly dismissed the significance of the U.S. potentially losing its measles elimination status. This view, starkly different from that of career staff, signals a potential shift in the agency's public health priorities under new political leadership known for vaccine skepticism.
The CDC's recent decision to remove six pediatric vaccines from its recommended list without input from its advisory committee (ACIP) signals a potential shift in public health governance. This move may sideline traditional scientific bodies, creating a vacuum that other groups, like the American Pediatric Association, are trying to fill.
Effective vaccines eradicate the visible horror of diseases. By eliminating the pain and tragic outcomes from public memory, vaccines work against their own acceptance. People cannot fear what they have never seen, leading to complacency and vaccine hesitancy because the terrifying counterfactual is unimaginable.
Unlike a drug that can be synthesized to a chemical standard, most vaccines are living biological products. This means the entire manufacturing process must be perfectly managed and cannot be altered without re-validation. This biological complexity makes production far more difficult and expensive than typical pharmaceuticals.
The revamped CDC advisory panel (ACIP) is not seeking to ban vaccines outright. Instead, its strategy is to use purported safety concerns to sow public doubt and introduce "regulatory friction." This approach creates confusion and barriers to access, which can be just as effective at reducing vaccination rates as an outright ban.
A Washington Post article claimed COVID was "no longer a pandemic of the unvaccinated" because 58% of deaths were vaccinated. This ignored the denominator: 80% of the population was vaccinated, meaning the unvaccinated were actually dying at a much higher rate.
A CDC website statement questioning the evidence base for the "vaccines do not cause autism" claim is now being leveraged by anti-vaccine advocates. The campaign is expanding to target vaccines containing aluminum adjuvants, potentially threatening essential public health programs for polio, measles, and pertussis by weaponizing scientific nuance.
When a public health intervention successfully prevents a crisis, the lack of a negative outcome makes the initial action seem like an unnecessary overreaction. This paradox makes it difficult to justify and maintain funding for preventative measures whose success is invisible.
The U.S. recommends 72 vaccine doses for children from birth to 18, a number significantly higher than 20 other developed nations. To combat falling vaccination rates and rebuild trust, the FDA is now highlighting a "core essential" list of approximately 38 vaccines.
The market has broadly punished vaccine stocks, but the US administration's negative focus has been primarily on COVID-19 vaccines. In contrast, recent HHS guidance specifically recommended pneumococcal vaccines for all children, suggesting a positive macro environment for companies like Vaxite.
