Vermont health officials said Tuesday they will continue to follow the state’s existing childhood immunization schedule after federal guidance was scaled back on childhood vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved six immunizations out of the “recommended” category on Monday, and Vermont officials and health experts said the state will maintain a schedule that recommends or requires many of those same vaccines for child care or school attendance.
State Health Commissioner Rick Hildebrant said in a statement that Vermont’s vaccine policy will continue to be guided by scientific evidence and informed by trusted medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“In Vermont, vaccine policy will continue to be guided by scientific evidence and informed by trusted medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics,” Hildebrant wrote Tuesday. He added that families should consult trusted health care professionals when making decisions about children’s health, including pediatricians, school nurses and local pharmacists, and he urged caution when sharing or acting on unverified or misleading health information.
Hildebrant confirmed to lawmakers during Tuesday testimony before the Vermont House of Representatives’ Committee on Human Services that the cost and access to childhood vaccines has not changed with the federal shift, saying insurers are still required to cover the vaccines. He said the department remains concerned about what the federal policy could look like in the future, warning it could lead to more drastic restrictions on vaccine access.
In response to that concern, the Health Department said it is working to proactively safeguard vaccine access. Hildebrant pointed to a proposed bill, H.545, as one approach. The bill would lay out clearer state guidelines for how immunization recommendations are made, including reliance on a committee of local experts rather than only federal vaccine panels, and it would add details designed to ensure insurers continue covering vaccination costs and provide legal immunity for providers who administer vaccines in good faith.
Hildebrant also described the state’s current procurement practice, saying Vermont buys vaccines from the CDC, which he said offers lower prices through bulk ordering. He told lawmakers that earlier in the fall, that reliance on the federal body contributed to delays in Vermont’s ability to procure Covid-19 vaccines.
Tracy Tyson, a pediatrician and the president-elect of Vermont’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, testified that her organization views Vermont as setting an example by solidifying its own state vaccine schedule separate from federal recommendations. “Those at American Academy of Pediatrics ‘see Vermont as a trailblazer in protecting the relationship between public health, its providers and its patients,’” her statement said.
Tyson told lawmakers that while children can still get the vaccines and insurance will cover them, the federal guideline changes could still create serious harm by increasing confusion among parents about what protections a child should receive and when. She said it undermines “true, informed consent,” and she added that “what it’s giving is more confusion, and that is going to lead to more lapses in care.”
Dartmouth Health Children’s chief physician Keith Loud said in a statement that the schedule is grounded in rigorous science and the expertise of immunologists, infectious disease specialists and public health professionals, and that the children’s hospital will continue to base its recommendations on the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule. The Vermont Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians and the Vermont Medical Society also issued a joint statement echoing the importance of the vaccines, Hildebrant said.
Hildebrant told the committee that vaccines help not only children’s health, but also the health care system’s finances. He cited what he described as cost-savings, including “the example of a $10 flu shot” and said that preventing emergency room or intensive care unit visits can avert “hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.” He also said, “The data on vaccines is a slam dunk. These are cost saving, not cost generating.”
This story was originally published by VTDigger and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.