Harrisburg, PA – Last week, the Shapiro Administration reiterated its commitment to stand with medical experts, to trust science, and to support evidence-based vaccine guidance. The Administration is continuing to recommend following the vaccine schedule for children developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics to protect Pennsylvania’s children from vaccine-prevented diseases, despite changes to federal vaccine recommendations.
Health care professionals, including pharmacists, from across the state have been vocal with their support that the state continues to promote and protect access to life-saving vaccines.
Last week, the MediaNews Group added its support for the Administration’s efforts in an editorial that ran in both the Pottsville Republican-Herald and the Scranton Times Tribune:
“Not only have vaccines worked to better public health and nearly eradicate many diseases that once were feared nationwide for their lethality, they’ve been a prolific money saver for the health care industry. According to a 2024 study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, nine different vaccines studied prevented more than 500 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1.13 million deaths among children born from 1994 through 2023. Researchers said that came with a net savings of $540 billion in both medical and nonmedical costs of having an infection, along with a $2.7 trillion in savings to society,” stated the Editorial Board.
Read the entire editorial supporting Pennsylvania’s current vaccine standards:
Our Opinion: State must maintain current vaccine standards, despite federal policy
By The Editorial Board Medianews Group Nepa
The most important fact surrounding the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recently updated childhood immunization schedule isn’t found anywhere near the top of the announcement.
It comes after the outline of new recommendations many physicians believe ultimately could prove harmful to public health, after the paragraphs that detail new Trump administration policies that remove seven vaccines — including those that reduce the effects of highly contagious ailments like the flu, COVID-19, several variations of hepatitis and meningococcal diseases — from the list previously deemed essential for all of the nation’s children.
“All vaccines currently recommended by CDC will remain covered by insurance without cost sharing,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the television personality, former Pennsylvania Senate candidate and current Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is quoted in the statement. “No family will lose access. This framework empowers parents and physicians to make individualized decisions based on risk, while maintaining strong protection against serious disease.”
In other words, the federal government will have its say, because it has that platform and a clear intent to take significant swipes with its chainsaw at longstanding health policy. But parents now have an increased obligation to be more knowledgeable about vaccines and why they work, versed on the dire impacts of these diseases and prepared to advocate for their families’ health than ever.
It’s simple: Vaccinations taken off the CDC’s recommended list for all children that are currently required in Pennsylvania should remain required.
Question is, does that do enough to maintain the level of public health to which we’ve become accustomed on its own?
That is why Pennsylvania’s Department of Health needs to continue to follow accepted science and the enduring advice of doctors and other medical professionals to ensure that the status quo — and not the scaled-back federal government recommendations — remains the legal standard for children attending school throughout the commonwealth.
The benefits of the past recommendations were clear, backed by science and statistically proven.
Not only have vaccines worked to better public health and nearly eradicate many diseases that once were feared nationwide for their lethality, they’ve been a prolific money saver for the health care industry. According to a 2024 study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, nine different vaccines studied prevented more than 500 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1.13 million deaths among children born from 1994 through 2023. Researchers said that came with a net savings of $540 billion in both medical and nonmedical costs of having an infection, along with a $2.7 trillion in savings to society.
A handful of those nine vaccines in the study — rotavirus, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B — were recently downgraded to recommended only for high-risk groups by the CDC.
Indeed, the difference between individual freedom (undoubtedly a good thing) and our responsibility to contribute to creating the society where that individual freedom can best be enjoyed (also, undoubtedly good) has always been separated by a fine line.
On paper and by definition, government insistence that certain vaccines must be injected into our bodies for the good of all infringes on the former. Given the reality that vaccines work by limiting the risk of full-blown infections and none are 100% effective in eliminating those infections altogether, there’s an equally easy argument to be made that those who exercise their individual freedom by not receiving vaccines also infringe upon the individual liberties of those who wish to by making it more likely they ultimately are infected by these diseases.
The federal government’s desire to find a way to walk that fine line is somewhat understandable. However, it must also own its role when it comes to the recent lowering of vaccine rates nationwide, a tacit if not outright advocacy of misinformation that vaccines don’t work or aren’t necessary to combat the worst effects of a disease’s spread in our communities.
They do. And, they are. Pennsylvania needs to support science and evidence. Protect our children and our public health by ensuring the ones required for all kids here remain that way.
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