Jason L. Schwartz

pretty obvious shift from following nonpartisan (scientific, medical) authority to following partisan authority. Public health advocates and researchers need to view that as the challenge, rather than rummaging around for the explanation for vaccine hesitancy in this or that community.

Heartening results here www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-covid-...

Do Childhood Vaccines Cause Tornadoes? It hasn’t been ruled out.

More clever example of what I was going for here www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...

Lots of criticism (appropriately) being directed toward Sen. Cassidy and his infamous ‘commitments’ from RFK, but he had company in falling for this. Here’s Sen. Murkowski the day before the final confirmation vote…

If more (or all) CDC/ACIP recs go in this direction, it’ll make vaccination efforts harder and more confusing. But given the other tools available to HHS—actively recommending against vaccines, publishing safety warnings, rescinding FDA approvals, etc,—it could be worse? (It probably will be worse…)

The new approach adopted for COVID vaccine guidance this summer signaled we were likely heading in this direction, as I wrote in NEJM a few months back www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

From today’s Politico Pulse. He’s talking about downgrading more (most? all?) CDC/ACIP vaccine recommendations from ‘routine’ to ‘shared decision-making’. Almost certainly starting with the Hep B birth dose next month and expanding from there.

Yeah had the same reaction. I guess “resigned,” “disgusted”, “irate” count as varied?

With CDC now adding to confusion online about vaccine safety, it's more important than ever to establish networks of trusted sources -- and accurate information -- across communities.

With my colleague Dr. Vanya Jones in @jamahealthforum.com

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

a man with glasses is surrounded by a glowing circle and the website pmitf.com is displayed below him ALT: a man with glasses is surrounded by a glowing circle and the website pmitf.com is displayed below him

Do Tic Tacs cause dementia? Does whole wheat bread cause incontinence? Who’s to say? Have we ruled out the possibility?

CDC epistemology Mad Libs time: “The claim "tap water does not cause male-pattern baldness" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that tap water causes male pattern baldness.”

We are excited to share our first CRRIT newsletter! Our quarterly newsletter will share recently published research, CRRIT mentions in the news, conferences and meetings, and policy engagement (1/2)

It’s why I think far more attention needs to be devoted to equipping physicians and other providers with the knowledge, resources, and skills to support these interactions with families. (Even if it means less time generating snazzier Instagram/TikTok/YouTube/podcast content in vogue these days.)

So important to keep the actual landscape re: vaccine attitudes in mind. Broad support remains across party lines. Trust highest in one’s doctor, lowest in info from social media, RFK, podcasts. (From today’s www.politico.com/politicopulse/)

The current climate surrounding childhood vaccination in the United States is one of confusion and vitriol. Despite the well-documented achievements of vaccines and extensive efforts by the public health community to ensure their safety, vocal critics of vaccination proffer a growing list of theories that link vaccines to an array of medical conditions, most prominently autism. Others question the necessity of newer vaccines, seeing their arrivals not as triumphs of medical research but as overreaches by a profit-obsessed pharmaceutical industry and an accommodating, financially conflicted medical establishment. In response to these charges, physicians, scientists, and government public health officials are routinely on the defensive, refuting allegations of unconfirmed risks, justifying the value of recommended vaccines, and striving to preserve public trust in vaccination overall. While national data suggest that a strong foundation of support for vaccination remains, regional clusters of unvaccinated children and increases in nonmedical exemptions from state school-entry vaccination requirements are causes for alarm among advocates of vaccines. Even more worrisome is research suggesting that the safety of vaccines is a growing concern among many parents [1].

The first few paragraphs could have been written today (rather than late 2011). Plus ca change…

Bummed to hear this. One of my first papers as a grad student appeared there, and, thanks to its open access model, has continued to be found by readers (and cited) to this day. journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/new-...

So much trust being restored by this crew!

Lots of things to worry about in vaccine policy, but this isn’t one of them (at least for now). The VFC program doesn’t depend on the annual schedules being updated/ published, but on existing VFC “resolutions” for each vaccine that remain on the books unless rescinded: www.cdc.gov/vaccines-for...

A great time talking vaccines and seeing old bioethics friends at ASBH this weekend! (My connecting flight on the way out to Portland, on the other hand, was a bit of an adventure.)

From the squawk7700 community on Reddit: A Delta (DL1661) 737-900ER rejected takeoff (RTO) at Minneapolis St. Paul Airport (MSP) after engine fire caught on livestream. Posted by ltrumpbour - 5 votes and 1 comment

Thanks! Here’s the video. (Felt more dramatic inside) www.reddit.com/r/squawk7700...

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@airlineflyer.net @petchmo.bsky.social Big fan of the pod (but a total novice in this world). Was on DL1661 today; rejected takeoff after an engine failed. Looks to have hit 137 KTS. Google suggests that’s really close to its ballpark V1. True? www.flightradar24.com/data/flights...

I spoke to @melodyschreiber.com @theguardian.com along with @pauloffit.bsky.social & @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social about the MMR going monovalent.

We all agree: following Andrew Wakefield's advice to "break up the vaccines" is unnecessary, pointless, & will only prevent kids from getting vaccinated

Latest eBay purchase: the 2005 Rolling Stone issue where RFK’s (later retracted) ‘Deadly Immunity’ was published. The very beginning of his two decades (and counting) spent challenging/rejecting the safety of vaccines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_...

Alarm as CDC calls for separate MMR vaccines despite measles outbreak Concerns that three separate shots would be more costly and time-consuming, and keep kids from being vaccinated

The acting director of the CDC called for new, separate MMR shots. That would be "remarkably complicated, time-consuming, costly, but more importantly unnecessary," @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social told me:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

YouTube video by Boston University School of Public Health Vaccine Hesitancy: Past, Present, and Future

Great conversation on vaccine hesitancy (and all things US vaccine policy) hosted by the folks at @busph.bsky.social yesterday. Here’s the recording www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSCw...

No FR announcement, inside 15-days, and now meeting date updated to “TBD” on ACIP website.

One more plug for this webinar tomorrow afternoon. Not too late to register!

This new NASEM report on vaccine safety was commissioned by CDC during the Biden administration but arrives in an entirely different vaccine policy landscape. www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/rev...

The @factcheck.org team have done really thorough, careful work on 1000 vaccine-related claims during and since the pandemic. A fantastic resource and service that should get more attention.

If there’s really going to be another ACIP meeting on October 22-23, FACA requires a Federal Register announcement (with topics and potential votes) no later than this Tuesday, 10/7 (15 days ahead)