COVID vaccine researcher discusses CDC's new guidelines

[ad_1] NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Youngsters's Hospital Heart for Vaccine Growth, concerning the CDC's new pointers on COVID vaccines for youths and pregnant girls.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now that the federal authorities has stopped recommending the COVID vaccine for wholesome youngsters and pregnant girls, will these photographs nonetheless be out there to individuals who need them, and can insurance coverage cowl it? Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't reply these questions within the one-minute video the place he introduced the brand new steering yesterday.

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ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I could not be extra happy to announce that as of right now, the COVID vaccine for wholesome youngsters and wholesome pregnant girls has been faraway from the CDC really helpful immunization schedule.

SHAPIRO: Dr. Peter Jay Hotez is right here to assist us perceive what this implies for individuals's entry to the photographs. He is dean of the Nationwide Faculty of Tropical Medication at Baylor Faculty of Medication, and he was a part of the crew that labored to develop a low-cost COVID vaccine. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

PETER JAY HOTEZ: Oh, thanks for having me, Ari.

SHAPIRO: What's your preliminary response to the brand new pointers?

HOTEZ: Type of shock and disappointment as a result of we all know how essential COVID vaccinations had been each for pregnant girls and for kids, though for various causes. Within the case for pregnant girls, to start with, you understand, as anybody who was working in an intensive care unit between 2020 and 2023 is aware of, pregnant girls didn't do effectively with COVID the virus. On common, they'd a lot increased charges of extreme sickness requiring hospitalizations and even intensive care unit monitoring, and generally they did not survive. The info that we now have up to now means that if pregnant girls had been vaccinated in opposition to COVID, it had a number of advantages, predominantly together with, you understand, by one evaluation, suggesting a 90-, 94% discount in hospitalization for pregnant girls who obtained vaccinated.

SHAPIRO: In order that's pregnant girls. On the query of wholesome youngsters, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary stated most international locations have stopped recommending these vaccines for youths. Is that true? And in that case, does it make sense for the U.S. to comply with?

HOTEZ: You recognize, I believe one of many issues with the best way the present management of the FDA appears at COVID vaccines could be very a lot the best way they portrayed it after they had been speaking heads on Fox Information, which is that they had been solely one parameter, which was case fatality charges or an infection mortality charges, which in fact are a lot decrease in youngsters, though a major variety of youngsters do die yearly from COVID. However here is the half that they actually missed the ball on, which is the influence of vaccinating youngsters for lengthy COVID. There was, final 12 months, a vital examine displaying vital profit for each youngsters and adolescents, in each the delta wave in 2021 and the BA.1 omicron wave in 2022, of stopping lengthy COVID. So of their calculus, it does not appear to be the FDA in any respect is contemplating the influence of lengthy COVID.

SHAPIRO: If any individual nonetheless needs the shot, regardless of the federal authorities's suggestion, is insurance coverage prone to cowl it?

HOTEZ: So that is the place I'll provide you with a fairly I-don't-know-the-answer-to-your-question reply, a fairly lengthy one, which is I do not assume we all know. To begin with, you understand, often it isn't the FDA signing off on the general public well being use of a vaccine. That is why we now have a Facilities for Illness Management. That is why we now have an Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices - referred to as ACIP - to make these suggestions. So the choice on how the vaccines are used are sometimes made in collaboration between ACIP and the CDC director. And that is usually the premise for recommending the vaccine for the vaccines for kids's program, for the insurers. And all of that now has been bypassed. So I believe we're in form of an unknown territory now. What does it imply that the FDA has skirted all of that - or Well being and Human Companies - and simply form of made this unilateral determination, which on prime of that, just isn't evidence-based?

So query one, what do the pharmacy chains do? Do they proceed to supply vaccines for pregnant girls or for youths? What do the pediatric practices do? That is query one. The subsequent query goes to be, will the insurance coverage firms cowl it? After which, if that weren't complicated sufficient, if you happen to keep in mind, the management of the Meals and Drug Administration - Dr. Makary, the FDA commissioner, and the pinnacle of CBER, the Heart for Biologics Analysis Analysis, Dr. Vinay Prasad - issued a steering doc the place they particularly stated that being pregnant is, quote, "a threat issue" for warranting vaccinating people who won't in any other case qualify.

SHAPIRO: And simply to be clear, if it is not coated by insurance coverage, it is fairly costly, proper?

HOTEZ: Nicely, it definitely may be. I do know I used to be not very completely satisfied when Pfizer and Moderna, after they took a whole lot of U.S. taxpayer {dollars}, they jacked up the value. I believe eventually look, it was round $130 a dose. So that could be a vital expense for lots of people.

SHAPIRO: So backside line, what's your recommendation for individuals who wish to be as protected as they are often?

HOTEZ: Definitely, if it had been my daughter or beloved one who was pregnant and there was a whole lot of COVID transmission, I'd strongly counsel that they get vaccinated to guard themselves and shield their soon-to-be new child toddler. For an adolescent or a baby, if you happen to're involved about lengthy COVID, I'd additionally suggest maintaining with annual immunizations.

SHAPIRO: That's Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, codirector of the Texas Youngsters's Hospital Heart for Vaccine Growth and dean of the Nationwide Faculty of Tropical Medication at Baylor Faculty of Medication. Thanks.

HOTEZ: Thanks.

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