As the Trump administration shakes up childhood vaccine recommendations, a growing number of states are moving quickly to keep vaccines free and protect healthcare workers from lawsuits.
“States are stepping up to proactively protect their communities,” said Dr. said David Higgins, a pediatrician practicing in Aurora, Colorado, and vice president of the Colorado chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Colorado is one of at least six states — along with Alaska, California, Illinois, Maryland and Vermont — to introduce vaccine-related bills in recent months, in an unprecedented break from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule in early January.
Colorado’s Senate Bill 32 is the most expansive of the proposals.
It extends malpractice liability protections to health care providers related to childhood vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, a leading pediatricians’ group, and the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee — including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, clinics, hospitals and insurance companies.
This protection is important because lawmakers say lawsuits can be used by anti-vaccine groups as a tactic to prevent health workers, state programs or clinics from offering childhood vaccines.
“We’re not going above and beyond; we’re trying to preserve the environment in which health care works in the US,” said Democratic Colorado state Sen. said Kyle Mullica, the emergency department nurse who introduced the legislation. “It’s not going to protect someone if they go outside the norm and do something wrong. It’s going to try to stem the tide of lawsuits related to vaccines.”
So far, 28 states have broken with the CDC’s new childhood vaccine recommendations to varying degrees, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health care research group. Changes away from federal guidelines range from legislation protecting vaccines and protecting health care workers from lawsuits to relying on the AAP’s guidance.
The change in the CDC’s guidance dropped the recommendation that all infants be protected against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue and two types of bacterial meningitis. Immediately, the AAP and at least 12 other major medical groups, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, reiterated their recommendations for childhood vaccination against 18 diseases.
To date, most states have defaulted to federal guidance and liability protections for vaccines. Some states also have agreements that allow them to purchase vaccines at the cheapest prices available from the CDC.
“States that don’t take proactive steps to clarify these issues are going to see disruption to their state’s vaccine delivery system, whether it’s for legal reasons, liability reasons, or just plain confusion,” Higgins warned.
Under Kennedy’s guidance, the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee has taken steps to undermine support for childhood vaccination. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has repeatedly and falsely linked vaccines with autism and abruptly fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee, replacing them with several vaccine critics. Shortly thereafter, the committee returned the number of vaccines recommended for all children.
While Kennedy focused public attention on the “Eat Real Food” campaign to discourage ultra-processed foods and promote revised dietary guidelines, it fell to Mehmet Öz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to rally support for vaccines. On CNN in early February, Oz urged people to “please get vaccinated” as the largest outbreak of measles in decades raged in South Carolina.
School Required Immunizations
States determine vaccination requirements for school children. They allow families to opt out of immunizations for medical reasons, and many allow religious vaccine exemptions for children who attend public school. Dorit Reese, a professor at the University of California College of Law in San Francisco, said states have deviated from the CDC’s vaccine schedule in the past, but “this is the first time states have broken wholesale from federal guidance.”
Without clear, science-backed guidance from federal health agencies, Higgins worries, “vaccine policy will fall apart.”
For example, Colorado’s new bill ensures liability protection for vaccine providers, allows pharmacists to prescribe and administer vaccines, and requires insurance companies in the state to cover the HPV vaccine. It also makes state immunization program funds available to providers to cover any vaccine-related costs not subsidized by the federal government’s immunization program funds.
The bill would allow health officials to follow vaccine guidelines from the CDC, AAP, American Academy of Family Physicians, ACOG and the American College of Physicians. The proposed legislation was approved by the Senate in early February.
It “aims to preserve access to science-backed vaccines for people in Colorado who want them,” Higgins said.
The bill is now in the Colorado House. If passed, the law would take effect in August.
