CDC advisory group considers narrowing COVID vaccine recommendations

Next year s COVID vaccine recommendations from the U S Centers for Illness Control and Prevention appear likely to be less expansive than in previous years Notes from a latest meeting of the CDC s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices COVID- Work Group show healthcare functionaries are considering narrowing the recommended age range for universal vaccination from everyone over months to those and older and people with vitality complications for the next respiratory virus season Related Articles Misinformation about fentanyl exposure threatens to undermine overdose response Is your teen sleep-deprived These expert bedtime tips could help Sleep training is no longer just for babies Several schools are teaching teens how to sleep States push Medicaid work rules but minimal programs help enrollees find jobs Republicans in Congress are eyeing cuts to Medicaid But what does Medicaid in fact do A majority of the working group s members indicated they will vote to endorse such a risk-based recommendation rather than the current universal recommendation Certain doctors are praising the workable move while others have reservations about the shift The change would be long overdue reported Monica Gandhi a UC San Francisco infectious illness expert I think it is the right approach to give people boosters when they re at hazard she explained A new more narrow COVID vaccine recommendation would also put the United States more in line with the rest of the world The greater part of the world in fact the entire planet including the World Fitness Organization only recommends COVID vaccination for certain pitfall groups she announced Gandhi who was often a critic of several of the more restrictive pandemic precautions in Northern California s Bay Area including prolonged school closures has researched and published papers on the efficacy of vaccinations and boosters She hopes the CDC adjusting its recommendations might restore selected of the society s trust in constituents vitality personnel But there is another common respiratory virus for which the CDC has long recommended universal annual inoculation The agency recommends a flu shot every year for every person months and older and while flu vaccination coverage is far from universal in contemporary years uptake of the flu vaccine has been suppressed by the politicization of vaccinations that stemmed from the conversation around COVID vaccines Since the first COVID vaccine was issued the agency has recommended that everyone six months and older get at least one dose of the annually reformulated COVID vaccine each year The process of yearly shots was more similar to the system for the flu vaccine than other respiratory viruses for which universal but less frequent vaccination is recommended like measles The measles vaccine is administered in two doses during childhood with no additional boosters recommended In fresh years additional doses of the COVID vaccine have been recommended for the elderly and those at high danger of serious illness Not all populace medical experts agree that a change to the recommendations is the right idea There are reasonable people coming down on both sides of it mentioned Dr John Swartzberg clinical professor emeritus at the UC Berkeley School of Masses Physical condition I think the best thing for a society is to have the maximum protection we can have Swartzberg commented Therefore I tilt toward continuing the way we re doing it According to content presented at the working group meeting this week as of mid-March just of children between months old and years old disclosed having received this year s COVID vaccine slightly lower than the percentage who had been vaccinated the year before Those rates are lower than the rate of flu vaccination for children despite similar recommendations If no one s doing what you re recommending you ve obviously lost their trust Gandhi noted It s really fundamental to regain trust in population wellbeing While next year s recommendations may not call for a vaccine for those under without a high pitfall a vast majority of the working group members indicated they want to allow anyone to get an annual shot if they choose to Selected worry that given the patchwork nature of the country s wellbeing care and vitality insurance system the change could make it harder for specific to get vaccinated but the implications are not clear If it is recommended for people the insurance pays for it but if it is suggested then the insurance may or may not pay for it commented Swartzberg That s why there have been all these battles over the language that the CDC uses he declared It has big implications The working group is expected to vote on its final recommendation in June