LANSING — Michigan’s chief medical executive is pushing back against federal changes to childhood vaccine recommendations.
Under the change, the federal government no longer recommends that all children be vaccinated for influenza, meningitis and Hepatitis A and B.
Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state’s top medical official, argues that those changes were made run counter to broad scientific consensus.
Bagdasarian instead recommends following the American Academies of Pediatrics and Family Practice.
“Those are groups of physicians, of scientists who are making recommendations based on science for the good of their patients,” Bagdasarian said.
Bagdasarian and other state officials argue that under Health Secretary Robert f. Kennedy Jr., the federal government is no longer consistently making decisions based on scientific evidence.
The Washington Post reported that Centers for Disease Control employees were “blindsided” by the announcement of the federal vaccine changes.
Bagdasarian says that the changes will likely lead to the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses that could stress the state’s health system.
“We want to make sure that our hospitals and our health centers are available for folks who need cancer treatment, or who need organ transplants or all kinds of other care — and if we are so busy taking care of all of the vaccine preventable diseases, we simply won’t have that kind of capacity,” she said.