David Higgins

Under RFK Jr., the CDC provides a megaphone to the anti-vaccine movement Common anti-vaccine talking points were on display as the CDC’s immunization advisers repealed a hepatitis B birth vaccine recommendation and scrutinized the childhood schedule.

🔗 www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

The CDC’s ACIP vaccine meeting this week was flooded with rhetoric posing as science. Confidence ≠ evidence.

As I told WaPo: misinformation wrapped in scientific authority is the most dangerous kind.

Our kids deserve better.

Our Kids Deserve Better The health of America’s children shouldn't be shaped by federal dysfunction

More in my Substack: 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/communit...

ACIP’s two-day meeting was a chaotic circus of misinformation, distortion, and people speaking with confidence far beyond their expertise.

One thought kept coming back to me: our kids deserve better.

Do not come between a pediatrician and our patients’ health.

We are fiercely devoted to them.

Vaccine committee votes to scrap universal hepatitis B shots for newborns despite outcry from children’s health experts The decision undoes a highly effective 34-year prevention strategy that has nearly eliminated early childhood hepatitis B infections in the U.S.

“Vaccinating babies for hepatitis B at birth remains one of the clearest, most evidence-based ways to keep American children free of this lifelong, deadly infection.”
- @drhigginsmd.bsky.social, preventive medicine specialist, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

9/ The vaccine schedule is only one item on ACIP’s agenda this week. This breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/2025-dec-acip-prebunk

Love,
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
Annicka Evans, PhD
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@enirenberg.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social

1/ Tomorrow, #ACIP —the external advisory committee that guides U.S. vaccine policy—will meet for two days. Thursday’s agenda will focus on Hepatitis B (Hep B). We’re expecting to hear a few falsehoods to start circulating along with some unsupported safety concerns. Here’s what you should know 👇

11/ HBV is only one item on ACIP’s meeting agenda this week. This resource breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/2025-dec-acip-prebunk

Love,
Annicka Evans, PhD
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
@enirenberg.bsky.social
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social

The Cost of a Delay The ACIP’s hepatitis B vaccine vote could reverse decades of hard-won progress

ACIP is again considering delaying the hepatitis B birth dose, with no new evidence to support it.

New modeling shows that hundreds of preventable newborn infections could occur if the birth dose is removed.

Today’s Substack: communityimmunity.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...
#vaccines #publichealth

Informed Consent Is Alive and Well—Despite What You’ve Been Told Setting the record straight on how vaccine communication actually works and why some groups want you to think it’s broken

CDC’s acting director recently claimed that “informed consent is back” for vaccines—implying it ever disappeared. It didn’t. The real concern isn’t a lack of informed consent, but the growing effort to twist it into fear, confusion, and "misinformed refusal".

open.substack.com/pub/communit...

Nirsevimab Effectiveness Against Intensive Care Unit ... This report describes a multicenter case-control investigation that found nirsevimab was 80% effective at preventing RSV-associated ICU admissions among infants.

Some genuinely good news!

A new study found the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab cut ICU admissions and respiratory failure by ~80% in infants during their first RSV season.

This is what progress looks like. These tools are working!

#RSV #PublicHealth #Pediatrics

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

It reflects a new CDC, reshaped by political appointees, that has abdicated its responsibility to provide clear, evidence-based information the public can rely on.

And it won’t just harm today’s children, families, and communities — future generations will pay the price.

When clear science is rewritten as ambiguity, misinformation rushes in to fill the vacuum.

This update does not reflect the scientific rigor and integrity the CDC has upheld for nearly eight decades, across 14 presidential administrations of both parties.

🚨 Today’s CDC update to its Autism and Vaccines page is deeply troubling.

It takes a well-studied question with decades of consistent evidence and reframes it as uncertain—using a dangerous mix of misrepresentation and false equivalence.

www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...

How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy? A majority of Americans say childhood vaccines are effective at preventing illness, but slightly fewer are confident that the vaccine schedule is safe.

Pew’s latest vaccine survey drew headlines like “GOP support slips”. I’ve never had a parent refuse due to party affiliation. These decisions are driven, among other things, by social norms, media, and values—not party labels.

Framing it politically only risks making it political.

bit.ly/482gijR

The ACIP Meetings Matter More Than You Think Why vaccine policy debates aren’t just political theater—they show up in exam rooms, shaping what parents hear and how children are protected.

📰New this week! Why vaccine policy debates aren’t just political theater—they show up in exam rooms, shaping what parents hear and how children are protected.

open.substack.com/pub/communit...

Yes, even if we don’t lose elimination status, we shouldn’t be proud of where we are. And with our current trajectory, it’s just a matter of time.

North America May Soon No Longer Be Officially Measles-Free, Experts Say A meeting of the Pan American Health Organization this week will address the resurgence of measles in the Americas

PAHO meets this week to decide if we’ve lost measles elimination status. I warned in this interview that we’re marching toward that threshold—and getting this close signals widening vaccination gaps and eroding public health capacity.

🔗 www.scientificamerican.com/article/meas...

#Vaccines #Measles

Even small drops in vaccination rates for US children can lead to disease outbreaks Most states require childhood vaccinations for measles, mumps, tetanus, rubella, chickenpox and whooping cough.

Even small drops in vaccination rates can open the door to outbreaks.

In my Q&A with The Conversation, I explain why school vaccine requirements matter, how we monitor vaccine safety, and what’s behind recent dips in coverage.

theconversation.com/even-small-d...

#VaccinesWork #PublicHealth

Even small drops in vaccination rates for US children can lead to disease outbreaks Most states require childhood vaccinations for measles, mumps, tetanus, rubella, chickenpox and whooping cough.

Even small drops in vaccination rates can fuel measles outbreaks, says pediatrician @drhigginsmd.bsky.social.

His message to parents: stay up to date and talk to your doctor to get more information – not social media.

buff.ly/kTcrQWq
#vaccineswork 🩺 🧪

The CDC says people must consult a health professional before COVID shot The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accepted a controversial recommendation from outside vaccine advisers to tighten guidelines for the COVID vaccine.

Today, HHS declared “informed consent is back” for vaccines.

It never left.

Doctors, nurses, and other professionals do this every day.

Real informed consent means clear, reliable info—not hyped risks or downplayed benefits. Anything else is misinformed consent.

www.npr.org/2025/10/06/n...

Low-income children lack access to Covid vaccines because of approval delay Two weeks after vaccine advisers approved new Covid recs, Kennedy still hasn’t given his approval, leaving states unable to order updated shots for low-income kids.

🚨 Delays in HHS leadership approving COVID-19 vaccines for the Vaccines For Children program mean millions of kids can’t get them. VFC covers ~half of U.S. children, including medically complex kids at highest risk.

#ChildHealth #VaccineAccess

www.statnews.com/2025/09/30/c...

The Fight Over the Hepatitis B Vaccine A vaccine that prevents liver cancer is suddenly under attack

📰 The hepatitis B vaccine has nearly eliminated childhood infections and prevents liver cancer. So why is it under attack? I break it down in this week’s Community Immunity.

Read 👉 communityimmunity.substack.com/p/the-fight-...

#VaccinesWork #HepatitisB #PublicHealth #SciComm

The President's Announcement On Tylenol & Autism: Discussing It w A Pregnant Mother & A Pediatrician

I joined Why Should I Trust You? to talk about White House headlines linking Tylenol, vaccines & autism. Honest, real conversation with host Brinda Adhikari, co-hosts & a mom of an autistic child expecting another baby.

🎧 Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/7MZR...

@whyshoulditrustyou.bsky.social

Running Into a Brick Wall of Public Support Inside a chaotic CDC vaccine meeting and how Americans’ enduring support stopped sweeping vaccine rollbacks.

📰 New in Community Immunity!

Last week’s ACIP meeting ran into a stubborn reality: most Americans—Democrats, Republicans, even President Trump—like vaccines. That may have tempered rumored sweeping moves to limit access.

communityimmunity.substack.com/p/running-in...

11/ The Covid vaccine is only one of the vaccines ACIP will discuss this week. This resource breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/acip-prebunk-brief-2025-09-25

Love,
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
Annicka Evans, PhD
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social

www.cpr.org/2025/09/17/c...

12/ HBV is only one of the vaccines ACIP is voting on this week. This resource breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/acip-prebunk-brief-2025-09-25

Love,
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
Annicka Evans, PhD
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social

Can you get a COVID vaccine this year in Colorado? Here’s what to know. Can you get a COVID vaccine in 2025? Here are answers to all your questions about how to get a COVID vaccine in Colorado and who is eligible.

Changes at the federal level have caused confusion around annual COVID vaccinations, but Colorado has taken actions to try to maintain access to the shots. @drhigginsmd.bsky.social helps to answer some common questions: https://coloradosun.com/2025/09/08/covid-vaccine-what-to-know-fda-kennedy/