Leading US medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and Covid-19 vaccinations this fall, banding together on Wednesday to issue shot guidelines – and highlight the science behind them – saying they hope to ease confusion caused by the Trump administration’s changing advice.
Flu vaccinations are beginning and the latest coronavirus shots are starting to arrive after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this year’s updated versions last week. Winter also brings another vaccine-preventable risk called RSV.
Advice on who should take the shots and when usually comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with help from its independent advisers. But despite no new scientific evidence, Trump health officials last year began pulling back on some longstanding recommendations for fall virus protection and routine children’s vaccinations.
And that advisory panel, which influences state and insurance vaccine policies, is caught in a court battle. The CDC did not respond to questions about any new fall guidance.
Doctors’ groups are filling the gap: the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Infectious Diseases Society of America each released vaccination guidelines for their patient populations.
“There’s been a lot of confusion and chaos regarding vaccine recommendations,” said Dr Sandra Fryhofer, of the American Medical Association.
The AMA is putting all the groups’ recommendations plus evidence on shot safety and effectiveness on a website, SpreadTheFacts.org, so “the public has clear, consistent, science-based guidance even while the federal process is in flux”, she said.
Source: The Guardian, 2 September
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