Lincoln pediatrician recommends previous CDC vaccine schedule

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would no longer recommend six vaccines for all children.

Hepatitis A and B, influenza, Meningitis, RSV and Rotavirus vaccines are no longer listed as recommended for all children, potentially influencing state mandates. Many of those vaccines moved into a "recommended for certain high-risk groups” category, rather than advising them for all children.

Lincoln pediatrician and president at Children’s Complete Health, Dr. Sian Jones-Jobst, clarified that all of those vaccines are safe and available to take.

“I think it's important for people to understand that they didn't say they shouldn't be given,” Jones-Jobst said. “They just removed the recommendation that they should be given and really said that they could be given with shared decision-making between a physician and patient or family.”

Flu vaccines range from 30% to 80% effective by season, though they prevent serious illness. The other five are nearly 100% effective at preventing illness, she said.

Her practice continues to follow previous guidelines. The American Association of Pediatrics has announced it will continue with previous recommendations, citing the risks of spreading diseases if vaccines are missed.

“Because it's unclear why and how they made this recommendation,” Jones-Jobst, who’s practiced in Nebraska since 2004, said, “there's really no reason for medical bodies to change what we already know has been a safe and effective schedule for patients.”

Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said President Donald Trump directed his department to look at how other nations vaccinate kids.

"After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent,” Kennedy Jr. said in a press release. “This decision protects children, respects families and rebuilds trust in public health."

The CDC said “no family will lose access” to vaccines listed on this webpage, adding that insurance will still be required to cover them.

In particular, RSV is a concerning vaccine recommendation to claw back, Jones-Jobst said. In 2019, several of her patients were admitted to the intensive care unit with RSV.

“It's a very, very common cause of respiratory failure, meaning a child needs to be intubated and have extreme measures taken to help them to breathe,” Jones-Jobst said. “Even in children who don't end up in respiratory failure, those infants, oftentimes, are in the hospital for multiple days on oxygen and really can have some pretty significant and severe outcomes.”

Influenza and rotavirus, an intestinal infection, can also lead to hospitalization or death in kids under age 5, and especially those younger than 2.

“Once upon a time, it (rotavirus) was one of the top causes of death in the world, because it's so contagious,” Jones-Jobst said, “and it spreads from person to person so easily, and infants are so easily overwhelmed with the dehydration it causes.”