Arabic version: خبراء يشككون في مراجعة توصيات اللقاحات الفدرالية

According to The Guardian, the Trump administration is seeking public feedback on how vaccine recommendations are categorized, a move experts say could create confusion and barriers to access. A Health and Human Services notice published in the Federal Register on Friday asks whether current categories adequately support scientific rigor, informed choice and public trust.

Current vaccine recommendation categories include routine, risk-based and shared clinical decision-making. HHS is also asking whether additional or different categories should be adopted. The public comment period will run for 30 days, a timeline vaccine law expert Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law San Francisco, described as “pretty short”.

Reiss said public comment is appropriate, but questioned why HHS initiated the review. She said categorization has normally been handled by experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or its advisory committee on immunization practices. Wendy Parmet, a public health law scholar at Northeastern University, said the shared clinical decision-making terminology is confusing and called the HHS-led process troubling.

The notice also seeks views on assessing scientific evidence, including situations where randomized controlled trial evidence is limited or absent. It follows an executive order signed by Donald Trump earlier this month directing federal agencies to pare back vaccine recommendations. The order cannot itself change recommendations, which remain as they were before Trump took office. The notice also addresses mandates, though school vaccine requirements are set by state and local authorities, while federal requirements apply only to the military.