The CDC updated its adult and child immunization schedules to “apply individual-based decision-making to COVID-19 vaccination and recommend that toddlers receive protection from varicella (chickenpox) as a standalone immunization rather than in combination with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination.”
The immunization schedules are in keeping with recent recommendations by ACIP. Those recommendations have been controversial, as HPN has previously written about.
CDC used as a basis for these recommendations data that states that seasonal booster uptake was down significantly compared to the initial primary series COVID vaccination. They also mentioned the notion that “booster shots prompted widespread risk-benefit concerns about their safety and efficacy as the COVID-19 virus became endemic following population-wide immunity acquired during the pandemic.” No sources were cited to this effect.
The so-called “individual-based decision-making” model the CDC is now implementing is “referred to on the CDC's immunization schedules as vaccination based on shared clinical decision-making, which references providers including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. It means that the clinical decision to vaccinate should be based on patient characteristics that unlike age are difficult to incorporate in recommendations.” Immunization coverage will be granted through “all payment mechanisms including entitlement programs such as the Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Vaccines for Children Program, as well as insurance plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act.”
The announcement also contained a new recommendation for standalone chickenpox vaccination for toddlers through age three. The evidence cited to make this decision has been questioned by some healthcare organizations.
