JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
With future access to some vaccines in question, both doctors and parents are rethinking their approach to keeping kids protected. Jackie Fortier with our partner KFF Health News reports.
JACKIE FORTIER: Washington, D.C., pediatrician Lanre Falusi says conversations about vaccines are no longer just about safety or timing. Now parents are asking, will shots even be available?
LANRE FALUSI: I've been a pediatrician for about 20 years, and for the first time, I'm having parents of newborns ask me if their baby will still be able to get vaccines.
FORTIER: Falusi mostly treats children insured through Medicaid, the government program for low-income people and people with disabilities. Parents are making appointments the same week as their child's birthday to get them immunized as soon as possible, fearing federal changes.
FALUSI: How do we, you know, kind of make sure that we time the next visit so that we can get it just as soon as a child is eligible by age?
FORTIER: Before becoming health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran an activist group that questioned vaccine safety. In June, Kennedy removed the entire roster of experts from a federal vaccine advisory committee that recommends childhood shots. He replaced them with his own choices. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Kennedy, Emily Hilliard, said that no one will be denied access to a licensed vaccine if they choose to receive one. But that doesn't mean shots now considered routine will still be covered by insurance in the future, says Jennifer Tolbert, a researcher at health policy think tank KFF.
JENNIFER TOLBERT: People should be worried about what's going to happen to the availability of vaccines for children.
FORTIER: Tolbert says that if that advisory committee decides to stop recommending a vaccine and the CDC director agrees, the shot will almost immediately be unavailable to millions of low-income kids.
TOLBERT: It will automatically affect what is covered and, therefore, which vaccines are available to children on Medicaid.
FORTIER: Tolbert says that would also allow private insurers to start refusing coverage. Health insurance companies haven't yet said how they will change coverage if that happens, but an industry group says its members will continue to support broad access to immunizations. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, pediatrician Melissa Mason is dealing with a multistate measles outbreak that has grown to more than 1,300 cases with three deaths.
MELISSA MASON: We're seeing this outbreak because the kids' vaccination rates are too low, and it allows measles to be spread in the community.
FORTIER: Children and teens make up two-thirds of the measles cases.
MASON: We are offering the measles vaccine as young as 6 months of age.
FORTIER: That's within the current federal guidelines, but six months earlier than normal. In Columbia, South Carolina, pediatrician Deborah Greenhouse used to offer a flexible age range for when children could get their next shots, telling families any time within that window was fine.
DEBORAH GREENHOUSE: I'm not saying that anymore.
FORTIER: Now she's urging parents to get their child vaccines as soon as they're eligible, whether that's a vaccine at age 1 to prevent chicken pox or the HPV vaccine at age 9 to prevent cervical cancer. She says some parents are trying to get shots before their kids are old enough.
GREENHOUSE: I actually had two of those parents today ask if the HPV vaccine could be given to 7- or 8-year-olds, and I told them it cannot, but that as soon as the child turns 9, we absolutely can give it.
FORTIER: Greenhouse hopes that if federal policy changes, health insurance companies will choose to continue to cover vaccines.
GREENHOUSE: I cannot be a hundred percent sure what the future looks like for some of these vaccines. I can tell you it's a very scary place to be.
FORTIER: RFK Jr.'s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee will next have the chance to initiate changes to the vaccine schedule at their public meeting in late summer. Pediatricians say they'll be watching.
SUMMERS: That's reporter Jackie Fortier with our partner KFF Health News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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