The Department of Health and Human Services has advocated vaccination for a long time as a key component of public health. Before Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed as secretary of the country’s main public health agency, the disdainful vaccine skeptic said he would follow science in vaccines. But Kennedy’s mandate until now has the pharmaceutical industry, doctors and other interested parties in the health industry that observe policy changes.
Kennedy’s public comments in the middle of the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas have inconsistencies. He reached the headlines to declare on social networks that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles. But in a subsequent CBS interview, Socava vaccination stating that “the vaccine decreases very quickly.”
Another red flag was the abrupt resignation of Peter Marks as director of the Evaluation and Research Center of the FDAS Biological Center, whose supervision included vaccines. In his renunciation letter, Marks claimed that Kennedy is not interested in truth and evidence, but rather “subordinate confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” In a subsequent interview with Associated Press, Marks said he was expelled after refusing to allow the Kennedy team to edit data in the Vaccine Advertiser Event Report System (VAERS), a vaccine safety event database. Speaking at an event this week, Kennedy said he is planning changes in Vaers, Stat reported.
Vaccine manufacturers say nothing publicly about Kennedy’s statements or Marks’s comments. Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi and Modern did not respond to the messages for comments. This week, the Immunization Advisory Committee of the CDC (ACIP) with the first time since Kennedy became head of the HHS. This committee is important because payers use ACIP recommendations to guide their coverage decisions for vaccines. The meeting, which was originally scheduled for February, was postponed to gather public comments, HHS said. Financial analysts are observing ACIP and CDCs to obtain changes in government vaccines policies.
“The fact that this place of meeting toks after the bee originally postponed with a minimum warning is a small promise sign for the vaccine space and the future of the ACIP, which is on the beam leg under great scrutiny, the appointment of RFK Jrter Bee -HHS in the control.
Anti -Vacuna rhetoric did not take care of the meeting. Vaccine presentations and discussions processed in the same way as previous ACIP meetings. The vaccines of the respiratory syncitial virus (RSV) are from GSK, and Abreysvo, from Pfizer, received Autonative ACIP votes for their use in adults aged 50 to 59 who have a higher risk of RSV disease, expanding to the products. GSK also obtained an ACIP recommendation for its new meningococcal vaccine, Penmenvy.
In Chikungunya’s vaccines, Vimkunya of Bavarian Nordic received an affirmative acip vote. But the Chikungunya vaccine of Valneva, Ixchiq, has been reviewed that the Committee voted to recognize a caution pointing out this risk in people 65 years of age or older. All these votes are only recommendations. The CDC director can accept or reject these recommendations. The agency is currently led by the Interim Director Susan Monarch. President Trump nominated her to formally assume the leadership role after withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon, a doctor and former congressman who has expressed antivacamal opinions.
Until now, ACIP continues to make vaccines recommendations based on science. But Steven Lupo, a partner of the practice of life sciences in the consultant West Monroe, said that messaging and vaccine strategy must come from multiple places. Doctors have the responsibility to explain how the general effect of immunity protects against unforeseen disease. Insurers must make vaccines available and easy to access. Pharmaceutical companies must be more transparent about the science of their vaccines and the subject of clinical data support.
“Everyone has a responsibility in terms of messages and making the public understand in the long run, it is easier to prevent it than to deal with,” said Lupo.
All those interested in the health industry can improve their messages by adjusting to new ways in which people consume information. That means getting away from drug commercials with people dancing, Lupo said. While the United States is different from the majority of the world in terms of allowing pharmaceutical advertising, Lupo said that these commercials are aimed at doctors and consumers. But pharmaceutical companies can also reach these audiences in new ways, such as social networks, he said.
Some companies have been changing their messaging scope. Speaking of the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston last September, the Modern CEO, Stephane Banll, said the reach of the Arnm company includes social networks. For example, Tik Tok’s videos provide interviews and local stories about vaccinated people, said Banll. This approach takes advantage of the location that is part of the Tik Tok algorithm. Modern has also been educating doctors with data on hospitalization rates and Covid-19 mortality rates and influenza with localized data.
“We have literally used the postal code by postal code data, on the hospitalization rate, the Covid mortality rate, the flu, so that people realize the fact, which is, and doctors realize that [Covid-19 infection is] Three risk of hospitalization three times greater than the flu, “said Banll.” Therefore, it does not make sense of a public health position to give a flu vaccine and not have that discussion about Covid. “
However, pharmaceutical companies face more steep messaging challenges than others because the public perception of the pharmaceutical industry is low, Lupo said. One way they can overcome that is to make the message simpler and more accessible.
“I think we must make things very identifiable to people who are not scientific, who are not doctors, who are not doctors, so that they can understand how these vaccines work from a very rudimentary perspective,” Lupo said.
Atap’s following recommendations to observe COVID-19 vaccines. Since they were available, the Committee has recommended the universal use of these vaccines. Acip discussed this week changing that recommendation to focus on people in high -risk groups. That narrower reach could reduce vaccination rates, reducing more deep in income from COVID vaccines that have been falling for Pfizer and modern since the end of the pandemic. The next Acip meeting is scheduled for June 25 and 26.
Photo: Francesco letter photograph, getty images