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Long Island Parents Push Back Against Vaccinations, Pediatricians Say
An increasing number of Long Island parents are questioning, resisting or refusing to vaccinate their infants and young children for common childhood diseases such as measles, whooping cough and hepatitis, or delaying the schedule of immunization, according to some pediatricians.
The reluctance comes amid a tumultuous period in Washington, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic who serves as President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services secretary, last week removed all 17 members of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines.
On Wednesday, Kennedy named eight new members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, including a nurse who critics contend has spread misinformation about vaccines and a researcher who has suggested the COVID-19 vaccine caused a form of the AIDS virus.
Fears of impending 'crisis'Dr. Bruce Gerberg, a Huntington Station pediatrician, said vaccine reluctance was, until recently, largely limited to the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, which are voluntary and not required for students to attend public schools.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDBut in recent months, and particularly since the start of the second Trump administration, he's met with an increasing number of parents who are declining or postponing vaccinations that are mandatory for public school children.
They include infant and childhood vaccinations for polio, tetanus, measles, hepatitis B and whooping cough, and for older youths meningitis and HPV, Gerberg said.
"In the past it would be once every few months where somebody doesn't want to give their child anything," Gerberg, who is part of Allied Physician Group, said of childhood vaccines. "Now we see it every day. We see at least one patient's parent that refuse all the vaccines."
Those parents, Gerberg said, are provided with a host of medical information about the safety and importance of vaccinations and asked to sign a consent form advising them of the risks. The parents, he said, are also told their children will be ineligible to attend public school without these mandatory vaccinations.
Gerberg fears the trend will lead to a public health "crisis" for the region and the country.
"As pediatricians, we know what's good for the patients," he said, adding the risk extends to infants and young children who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated for certain diseases but may come into contact with unvaccinated youths. "These vaccines have shown they're safe and that they could save people's lives."
'Powerless to stop this'A Health and Human Services spokeswoman said in a statement: "Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability. His long-standing advocacy has focused on ensuring that vaccines and all medical interventions meet the highest standards of safety and are backed by gold standard science. He believes the American people deserve radical transparency — not censorship — so they can make truly informed decisions about their health."
Dr. Marc Lashley, who sees patients in southwest Nassau County, said he and his colleagues are "up in arms" over the advisory panel changes and with federal vaccine policies.
"We feel sort of despondent that we are powerless to stop this," said Lashley, another pediatrician with Allied Physicians Group. "It's going to affect how people view vaccines and vaccine safety and cause all kinds of confusion."
Lashley said patients are coming to him with more questions and concerns about vaccines, including those required for entrance to school.
To attend day care, prekindergarten and elementary school, students need to show proof of vaccination for illnesses such as measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox and hepatitis B.
But many are choosing not to have their children receive several immunizations simultaneously or follow a schedule set by the government.
"More people are asking to space out their vaccines in general," he said. "They are making their own schedules, saying they want one shot at a time. I try to explain to them the science about why this is a bad idea. But I also acknowledge their sovereignty as parents and ability to make decisions for their children."
Many vaccine experts have argued against spacing out childhood vaccinations beyond what is recommended because it increases the period of time that children do not have protection against viral and bacterial infections.
In a statement to Newsday, state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said the agency is "closely monitoring" the recent changes to the ACIP, and if changes to vaccine recommendations are made, it will assess any impact on New Yorkers.
McDonald said the state DOH remains "committed to sharing honest, science-based vaccine information and ensuring the continued safety, effectiveness, and accessibility of immunization efforts across the state."
RFK Jr. Calls for 'unbiased science'In a statement last Monday after dismissing the ACIP committee, Kennedy said the agency "was prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda. The public must know that unbiased science — evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest — guides the recommendations of our health agencies."
In a joint statement following the ACIP dismissals, the Nassau and Suffolk Medical Societies expressed "deep concern regarding the recent decision affecting access to vaccines — a decision that undermines decades of public health progress, places vulnerable populations at increased risk, and ignores overwhelming medical evidence. Vaccines are one of the safest and most effective tools we have to prevent disease, reduce suffering, and save lives. Limiting access or casting doubt on their necessity not only endangers individual children but weakens the health and safety of our communities."
Major medical organizations have concluded there is no link between vaccines and autism, one of the most common concerns among vaccine skeptics.
Still, John Gilmore, of Long Beach, who heads the Autism Action Network, a nonprofit focused on researching the causes and treatment for autism and who supports Kennedy's changes, said the number of people skeptical about vaccines has gone up "immensely" since the mandates created during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's a lot more concern about the safety and efficacy of these products, and there's a lot of concern about why they have no choice in what and when they give these things to their kids," said Gilmore, whose group also focuses on vaccine safety and insurance reform.
Gilmore believes there will be more transparency in approving vaccines moving forward.
"After COVID, there is a hell of a lot of damage that's been done to the reputation of these agencies," he said. "They've got a lot of work to do. And the old ways of doing business aren't gonna do it."
Measles cases on the riseDr. Sara Siddiqui, a pediatric and adolescent medicine physician at the NYU Langone Huntington Medical Group, said she's increasingly being questioned by parents about the ingredients, efficacy and side effects of childhood vaccines.
"Most parents understand that the vaccination process is important, however they may choose to delay or defer vaccinations at certain times," Siddiqui said of the recent trend. "Unfortunately, when enough parents refuse a type of vaccine we can start to see outbreaks."
Siddiqui points to the recent measles outbreaks in Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma.
In March, health officials announced a Suffolk County infant, who was too young to be vaccinated, likely contracted measles during an overseas trip.
"When the vaccination rate decreases in an area, especially for measles, outbreaks can occur as more and more children are susceptible and can spread disease," she said.
State Health Department data shows 82.6% of Suffolk children have received at least one dose of the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella by 2 years of age, while the number is 82% in Nassau. The statewide number is 81.2%. (The MMR vaccine is given as a series of two doses — the first typically at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second usually between ages 4 and 6.)
Dr. Matthew Harris, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Cohen Children's Medical Center, said those figures are "lower than what we want" but added they typically increase by the time the child is due for their second dosage.
While Harris said he's hearing from an increasing number of parents about the safety and schedule of childhood immunization — a trend the pediatrician tracks to "disinformation" about COVID-19 vaccines — he's yet to see a major uptick in parents rejecting the vaccines.
"The lion's share of parents are still fully vaccinating their children on the schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Harris said. "My experience has been that more parents are asking questions, mostly stemming from information they're seeing on social media."
By Robert Brodsky and Lisa L. ColangeloCDC Now Says Kids "may Receive" COVID-19 Vaccines, Should Talk To Their Doctors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that kids with no underlying health conditions "may receive" COVID-19 vaccines, dropping a broad recommendation for all children to get vaccinated against the virus.
Updates to the CDC's childhood immunization schedule were published late Thursday, following an announcement earlier this week by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That the agency would stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
"Where the parent presents with a desire for their child to be vaccinated, children 6 months and older may receive COVID-19 vaccination, informed by the clinical judgment of a healthcare provider and personal preference and circumstances," the CDC says in its new guidance.
Thursday's change to what the CDC calls "shared clinical decision-making" recommendations for children means that health insurance companies will continue to be required to broadly cover the shots for now in this age group.
The agency still broadly recommends COVID-19 vaccines for moderately or severely immunocompromised children, in addition to most adults for now. COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy are now listed as "No Guidance/Not Applicable," where they were previously recommended for all pregnant adults.
While Kennedy said in his video announcement that healthy pregnant women were also being removed from the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for COVID-19 vaccines, several pages of agency guidance saying that pregnant women are recommended to get vaccinated because of their higher risk of severe disease remain on the CDC's website as of Friday.
"Studies including hundreds of thousands of people around the world show that COVID-19 vaccination before and during pregnancy is safe, effective, and beneficial to both the pregnant woman and the baby. The benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy," one CDC webpage still reads.
Health authorities and experts closely watch changes to the CDC's recommendations, usually updated through open meetings of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, since they are tied to policies like liability protections and insurance coverage requirements.
The CDC also deleted a statement previously on the childhood immunization schedule that the guidance had been recommended by the committee, approved by the CDC and backed by a number of outside medical groups.
So far, the CDC's changes echo what the committee had already been considering voting on next month: narrowing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to only older adults and younger ages with risk factors, but still allowing for permissive coverage of others getting vaccinated.
The CDC has used "shared clinical decision-making" guidance in the past to allow for federal requirements guaranteeing insurance coverage and access to some vaccines, while stopping short of full-throated recommendations for everyone eligible to get a shot.
At its last meeting in April, the committee had not signaled that they were planning to lift the recommendation for pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Instead, pregnancy was listed during the meeting as among the underlying conditions that might warrant a continued recommendation for vaccination.
Multiple CDC officials said the change came after the agency received a directive signed by Kennedy, shortly after he posted his announcement to social media.
Kennedy's memo cited "a review of the recommendations" of the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, saying that the risks of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children "do not outweigh the purported benefits of the vaccine." The directive also cited "the lack of high-quality data demonstrating safety of the mRNA vaccines during pregnancy combined with the uncertainty of the benefits" for pregnant moms and their baby.
"Truly the death of expertise. This would be like the secretary of transportation directing that all planes must fly 5,000 feet higher than current. It's vibe-based decision making," one federal health official said of the directive.
Agency officials overseeing immunization recommendations said they were surprised by Kennedy's move. The Washington Post previously reported news of the directive.
"As you might be aware, the HHS Secretary issued a directive to CDC to update COVID-19 vaccine recommendations on the child and adult immunization schedules. In accordance with that instruction, CDC last night posted updated versions," agency officials wrote in an email to staff Friday.
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Alexander Tin
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