For the first time in decades, the CDC changed the schedule for childhood vaccines. Parents on both sides of the conversation say the change has caused confusion.
INDIANAPOLIS — After decades of 17 recommended vaccines for the childhood vaccine schedule, the CDC made a big change from 17 to 11 vaccines now recommended.
It leaves out shots on RSV, flu, COVID, hepatitis, and meningococcal vaccines.
IU epidemiology professor Dr. Thomas Duszynski believes this will hurt the community’s public health as a whole.
“This is the wrong approach from my opinion. In that, you know, we as a country with 300+ million people, and a background where we don’t have a safety net,” he said.
He explained that we will see impacts that are not just a rise in cases.
“It’s not only we think about illnesses and hospitalizations and death and disabilities, but there’s other things like financial burden, missed work, missed school, caregiver strains, right? Those downstream costs to families and communities,” Dr. Duszynski said.
Duszynski reminds parents that the vaccines now not recommended are still available for their children if they want them.
“The metrics aren’t correct. We’re not measuring the right thing here. We shouldn’t be measuring vaccines. What we need to be measuring is diseases prevented,” he said.
The CDC made the change in recommendations to more closely model Denmark.
“There’s been a lot of comparisons between us and other countries, and the reality is you don’t design a vaccination schedule based on what other countries are doing. You design it for the population that you’re serving,” Duszynski said.
Mom of three Brianna Glenn welcomes the new guidelines.
“I think that it’s definitely confusing, especially for parents that … new parents that, you know, bring their child into the doctor,” Glenn said.
Glenn said since her sister died from a 2-month-old vaccine, her perspective changed.
“There needs to just be more informed consent for parents and if they decide to continue to vaccinate, that’s totally fine and if they choose not to, that should be fine as well,” she said.
Mom of three Jessica Ingemi doesn’t support the new guidelines. She does agree with Glenn that the changing policy causes confusion.
“A lot of different emotions. I felt kind of sad, a little angry, a little bit scared for my girls,” she said.
She plans to stick with the previous recommendation schedule and what the American Academy of Pediatrics advises.
At 4 years old, Imgeni contracted meningitis before the vaccine existed. She said she was in a coma for days. Doctors told her parents the likelihood of her survival was low, and if she did survive, she could be blind, deaf and paralyzed.
Thankfully, she made a near full recovery.
“I was one of the lucky ones obviously, but it took its toll,” Ingemi said.
To this day, she battles the long-lasting impact of the virus, such as short-term memory loss.
“I could live with myself if something happened to my child by trying to protect them but to do nothing and have that happen to them, I couldn’t live with myself,” Ingemi said.
Duszynski’s suggestion is to “Talk to a provider, talk to an expert about your concerns.”
Leave a Reply