COVID vaccine researcher discusses CDC's new pointers : NPR

[ad_1] NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Kids's Hospital Heart for Vaccine Improvement, in regards to the CDC's new pointers on COVID vaccines for teenagers and pregnant ladies.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now that the federal authorities has stopped recommending the COVID vaccine for wholesome kids and pregnant ladies, will these pictures nonetheless be out there to individuals who need them, and can insurance coverage cowl it? Well being and Human Providers 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 kids and wholesome pregnant ladies has been faraway from the CDC beneficial immunization schedule.

SHAPIRO: Dr. Peter Jay Hotez is right here to assist us perceive what this implies for individuals's entry to the pictures. He is dean of the Nationwide Faculty of Tropical Drugs at Baylor School of Drugs, and he was a part of the group 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 necessary COVID vaccinations have been each for pregnant ladies and for youngsters, though for various causes. Within the case for pregnant ladies, to begin with, , as anybody who was working in an intensive care unit between 2020 and 2023 is aware of, pregnant ladies didn't do properly with COVID the virus. On common, that they had a lot increased charges of extreme sickness requiring hospitalizations and even intensive care unit monitoring, and typically they did not survive. The info that we've got up to now means that if pregnant ladies have been vaccinated towards COVID, it had a number of advantages, predominantly together with, , by one evaluation, suggesting a 90-, 94% discount in hospitalization for pregnant ladies who bought vaccinated.

SHAPIRO: In order that's pregnant ladies. On the query of wholesome kids, FDA commissioner Dr. Marty Makary mentioned most nations have stopped recommending these vaccines for teenagers. Is that true? And if that's the case, does it make sense for the U.S. to observe?

HOTEZ: You understand, I feel one of many issues with the way in which the present management of the FDA seems at COVID vaccines may be very a lot the way in which they portrayed it after they have been speaking heads on Fox Information, which is that they have been solely one parameter, which was case fatality charges or an infection mortality charges, which in fact are a lot decrease in kids, though a big variety of kids do die yearly from COVID. However here is the half that they actually missed the ball on, which is the impression of vaccinating kids for lengthy COVID. There was, final 12 months, an important research displaying vital profit for each kids 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 impression of lengthy COVID.

SHAPIRO: If any person nonetheless needs the shot, regardless of the federal authorities's advice, is insurance coverage more likely 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, , normally it isn't the FDA signing off on the general public well being use of a vaccine. That is why we've got a Facilities for Illness Management. That is why we've got an Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices - often known as ACIP - to make these suggestions. So the choice on how the vaccines are used are usually made in collaboration between ACIP and the CDC director. And that is typically the idea for recommending the vaccine for the vaccines for youngsters's program, for the insurers. And all of that now has been bypassed. So I feel we're in sort of an unknown territory now. What does it imply that the FDA has skirted all of that - or Well being and Human Providers - and simply sort of made this unilateral resolution, which on high of that, isn't evidence-based?

So query one, what do the pharmacy chains do? Do they proceed to supply vaccines for pregnant ladies or for teenagers? What do the pediatric practices do? That is query one. The subsequent query goes to be, will the insurance coverage corporations cowl it? After which, if that weren't complicated sufficient, when you 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 mentioned that being pregnant is, quote, "a threat issue" for warranting vaccinating people who may not in any other case qualify.

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

HOTEZ: Effectively, it definitely might be. I do know I used to be not very blissful when Pfizer and Moderna, after they took quite a lot of U.S. taxpayer {dollars}, they jacked up the value. I feel ultimately 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 have been my daughter or beloved one who was pregnant and there was quite a lot of COVID transmission, I'd strongly counsel that they get vaccinated to guard themselves and defend their soon-to-be new child toddler. For an adolescent or a toddler, when you're involved about lengthy COVID, I'd additionally suggest maintaining with annual immunizations.

SHAPIRO: That's Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, codirector of the Texas Kids's Hospital Heart for Vaccine Improvement and dean of the Nationwide Faculty of Tropical Drugs at Baylor School of Drugs. Thanks.

HOTEZ: Thanks.

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