Op-Ed: ACIP must give doctors and patients choice and access

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is comprised of medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines. ACIP holds three regular meetings each year at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

At its upcoming October meeting, health-policy experts and patient advocates are expecting ACIP to endorse a recommendation to lower the age for routine pneumococcal vaccination from age 65 to 50. Such a move by ACIP would be welcomed news to patients and their medical providers.

We know that vaccines are the best way to help prevent pneumococcal disease. Lowering the recommended age to 50 makes good public health sense. More awareness and greater access to pneumonia vaccines will boost vaccine rates and protect older adults – ultimately saving lives. It’s good science and good policy.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, unfortunately, became a provocative issue in certain quarters of the public discussion. When public health officials followed the science, good policies turned into good health outcomes. However, when governments and elected officials followed the politics without the science, the pandemic response went sideways. Regardless, we know this to be true: the threat of the coronavirus diminished for many Americans thanks to the COVID vaccines.

An ACIP recommendation to lower the age for pneumonia vaccination will help patients, of course, but also it will help restore goodwill lost after the pandemic. ACIP’s new recommendation would expand access to immunizations and increase trust in the public health community.

It’s critical, though, for ACIP to be an honest actor in its vaccination recommendations. The American people have had enough of government officials picking winners and losers. The public wants greater choice and better access to 21st Century medicine, it doesn’t want experts in Atlanta making healthcare decisions for doctors in New Jersey or California or anywhere else.

There are two primary FDA-approved vaccines for pneumococcal disease. The public knows every medicine does not interact with every patient in the same way. So, if there is a choice/option in pneumococcal vaccines, the decision to prescribe must be left to physicians.

Your doctor should decide which FDA-approved medicine, vaccine or other, works best for you.

RealClearHealth appreciates the important work of ACIP’s members, and we applaud the proposal to lower the age recommendation for routine pneumococcal vaccination. It’s good science. Giving patients greater choice and access to care is good medicine. Both pneumococcal vaccines should be recommended by ACIP for adults 50yo and older.

This article was originally published by RealClearHealth and made available via RealClearWire.