Tag Archives: vaccine hesitancy

Vaccination Confidence: Americans Support Shots

Posted on by

2/16/25 NYT Caitlin Rivers: Sorry, Mr. Kennedy, Most Americans Want to Get Their Shots

An excerpt:

There is very little that Americans can agree on these days…

But one thing nearly everyone agrees on? Vaccines are good.

This simple fact has been overshadowed by fears about what will happen to vaccine policy under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of health and human services. He has a long history of vaccine skepticism, and critics fear his leadership could lead to interference with vaccine programs or even withdrawal of vaccines from the market. Such moves are already roiling some state health programs. In Louisiana, the Health Department will “no longer promote mass vaccination,” instead leaving vaccine education to medical providers…

Recent reports in the news media and medical journals highlight a decline in the proportion of kindergartners who have received the measles, mumps and rubella shot. In the past five years, national coverage has fallen to 93 percent, from 95 percent, and in some states like Idaho, it is as low as 80 percent. But while these numbers fall short of the national goal of 95 percent required to maintain herd immunity for measles, they remain a resounding show of confidence…

Some 92 percent of American children received the polio vaccine by age 2, and more than 90 percent were vaccinated against hepatitis B. And it’s not just because of school requirements. Nearly nine in 10 Americans — including 86 percent of Republicans — say the benefits of childhood vaccines outweigh the risks...

Emphasizing the popularity of vaccines is not merely a matter of correcting the record. Studies have shown that presenting vaccines as a subject of debate or controversy can unintentionally reinforce vaccine hesitancy by making the issue appear less settled. For instance in one study, researchers found that college students who were asked to read a news report on vaccine safety that presented both sides in a falsely balanced fashion came away with the mistaken impression that the science on vaccine safety was in flux…

Routine vaccinations are just that: routine. Nearly all children receive them, and millions have benefited by being spared painful diseases and death. Leaders who undermine this basic tool may find themselves on the wrong side of both science and voters.

My take: Caitlin Rivers provides a lot of useful advice regarding infectious diseases. She has frequent (~weekly) substack articles with up-to-date information regarding infection prevalence (eg. Flu, COVID, norovirus, etc). Link to substack: Force of Infection

Related blog posts:

Brooklyn Bridge, NYC

How Insurance Companies Can Help Stop the Pandemic in the U.S.

Posted on by

From AJC, Hashem Dezhbakhsh: An incentive to encourage vaccination

This is a good read. An excerpt:

Vaccine hesitancy, which can prolong the pandemic, is a textbook example of a negative consumption externality, where an individual’s choice can harm or impose costs on others. Indoor smoking, drunk driving, or littering are other examples…

One policy option is to use the insurance mechanism, with risk assessment and risk pricing as its enforcing arms….

For example, a risky driver has a higher auto insurance premium than a safe driver, a smoker has a higher health insurance premium than a non-smoker,…Similarly, health insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-pays can be set higher for those who are unvaccinated...

Using risk pricing to set insurance premiums and co-pays for these individuals makes good sense and is fair policy. It incentivizes individuals to vaccinate, while also providing a fairer insurance pricing system by charging those with self-selected higher risk a higher price, instead of shifting their medical costs to others through uniform insurance pricing.

Hydrangeas

Best Studies from Pediatrics

Posted on by

Pediatrics has provided free full publication access to what they consider their best 10 articles and 5 influential COVID-19 publications: Pediatrics –2020 Best Articles Link

Here are direct links to 3 of the articles:

O Nafiu et al. Race, Postoperative Complications, and Death in Apparently Healthy Children (Video Abstact available on link) Key finding:

  • Among 172 549 apparently healthy children from a retrospective database, the incidence of 30-day mortality, postoperative complications, and serious adverse events were 0.02%, 13.9%, and 5.7%, respectively. Compared with their white peers, AA children had 3.43 times the odds of dying within 30 days after surgery (odds ratio: 3.43; 95% CI: 1.73–6.79)

K Lycett et al. Body Mass Index From Early to Late Childhood and Cardiometabolic Measurements at 11 to 12 Years. The authors followed 5107 infants from birth. Key findings:

  • At age 6 to 7 years, compared with those with a healthy weight, children with overweight had higher metabolic syndrome risk scores by 0.23 SD units (95% confidence interval 0.05 to 0.41) and with obesity by 0.76 SD units (0.51–1.01), with associations almost doubling by age 10 to 11 years. Thus, overweight and obesity from early childhood onward were strongly associated with higher cardiometabolic risk at 11 to 12 years of age.
  • In addition, obesity but not overweight had slightly higher outcome carotid intima-media thickness (0.20–0.30 SD units) at all ages

A Kempe et al. Parental Hesitancy About Routine Childhood and Influenza Vaccinations: A National Survey Key finding:

  • Hesitancy prevalence was 6.1% for routine childhood and 25.8% for influenza vaccines in this online sample of 2176 parents