Former Marin County health official reacts to CDC’s latest vaccine recommendation

By Amanda Hari

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that it would immediately change its vaccine recommendations for children.

The vaccine schedule has been reduced from immunizations for 17 diseases to 11.

“Feels radical, and irresponsible, and dangerous,” said Dr. Matt Willis about his initial reaction. 

Willis is the former Marin County Health Officer. He was in that role back in 2015 when Marin County had its first measles outbreak in more than a decade after two unvaccinated siblings were exposed at Disneyland.

“My biggest concern is we’re going to see the resurgence of diseases that had been held in control by vaccines,” said Willis. 

The new schedule does still recommend the measles vaccine, but Willis feels pulling back on some recommendations could lead to more questions about all vaccines.

“What’s concerning to me is the shadow this may cast in people’s minds around vaccines themselves,” said Willis. “The science has not changed.”

As a parent himself, he understands the concerns. 

“I myself, when we had our kids and were recommended to do that hepatitis B vaccine right there on the first day, I was concerned,” Willis admitted. “I thought, do we really need this for our baby?”

But he says as a doctor, it’s their job to educate families and honor their fears but explain why each vaccine is warranted. 

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a Stanford pediatric infectious disease epidemiologist, is concerned about the vaccines that have been removed.

“Two of the diseases that they downgraded, RSV and Influenza, are major causes of disease, hospitalization, and even death,” said Maldonado. 

She said RSV is the most common cause of hospitalizations for children under 2 in the US.

The new recommendations are based off Denmark’s schedule, a decision Maldonado says doesn’t make any sense.

“Even the Danish government said they thought we were doing the wrong thing,” said Maldonado. “Because we are not Denmark, we are not France or Germany or any of these other countries. We have poor social safety nets. We have poor health nets.”

She said the US Healthcare system is very different, access to care is more difficult and there are more health disparities.

But Willis believes this is more symbolic than anything, and most doctors will default to the old schedule.

“It is a very safe assumption that our healthcare providers and our systems will be offering vaccines according to the evidence based and safe 17 disease regimen,” said Willis.