‘I Never Want to See a Case of Polio, but I'm Very Fearful I Will'
Now we're worried that vaccination will become less routine and less available. That the health care structure that keeps children safe may be under threat. That we will watch children suffer and even die, watch families grieve — and that part of the horror will be knowing that these were preventable diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory group met last week — its first meeting since the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissed the panel's 17 experts and installed eight handpicked replacements, several with histories of vaccine skepticism. There, the panel, down to seven members after one withdrew, announced a review of the entire childhood vaccine schedule.
That's scary. The recommendations of the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, help determine what vaccines are provided at no cost for about half of American children through the Vaccines for Children Program and influence coverage by private insurers. If the committee turns science-based recommendations into wishy-washy talk-to-your-doctor suggestions or, worse, takes certain vaccines off the schedule, America risks unraveling the infrastructure that keeps children vaccinated and without polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, bacterial meningitis and all the other horrors.
'Every day I have at least one parent ask me, 'Are you still going to be able to give vaccines? Can I do something now in case they're not available later?'' said my colleague Dr. Jane Guttenberg, a pediatrician in New York City.
Can we imagine a two-tiered system in which protection is available only to those with the means to pay hundreds of dollars for a vaccination? Can we imagine not giving a vaccine that a child needs? 'I've been thinking about that a lot,' said Dr. Sally Goza, a primary care pediatrician in suburban Georgia. 'Vaccines cost us money. I can't just give vaccines away. I wish I could.'
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