The Big Cities
Health Coalition is the latest group to take a strong public stand in support
of vaccination as a direct response to concerns that the federal government is
limiting access and raising doubts.
“We are united
behind a simple message: get vaccinated,” the group wrote in a statement that
was published Monday. It was signed by two dozen public health leaders from
some of the nation’s largest cities, in both Democrat- and Republican-led
states.
Vaccination has
saved millions of lives, they wrote, but falling vaccination rates across the
country have led to more frequent outbreaks of devastating diseases such as
measles and polio. They also referenced the “rapidly approaching” respiratory
virus season, which brings a heavy wave of Covid-19 and flu infections.
“We are deeply
troubled by the repeated false claims about vaccines from too many federal
officials, which have contributed directly to these trends,” the public health
leaders wrote. “We are equally concerned about recent changes to the
recommended childhood and adult immunization schedules that unnecessarily limit
access to vaccines.”
Vaccine
advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted last
month to recommend against the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella
(MMRV) vaccine for children younger than 4, and a new working group will
convene to more broadly assess the safety, effectiveness and timing of the
shots children and adolescents get, as well as whether the schedule should be changed.
And at a recent
Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump made numerous false claims about
vaccines given to children, including about the size of vaccine doses and that
babies get 82 vaccines in a single shot.
As vaccination
becomes increasingly politicized, city health officials say, they felt a need
to speak up to protect their communities.
“We have to
make our public health decisions based on data and not on political ideology,”
said Dr. Phil Huang, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services
Department. “We have to be the voices for that science and reason.”
In a statement
to CNN, the US Department of Health and Human Services said that vaccines “can
be an important tool to prevent disease, especially for the vulnerable.”
“We are
restoring the doctor–patient relationship so people can make informed decisions
about their health with their providers,” HHS said.
Multiple major
medical organizations – including the American Academy of Pediatrics and
the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists – have broken from the CDC
on vaccine guidance. And new public health organizations
have formed in recent months with an aim to safeguard
public health amid turmoil at the federal level.
The Big Cities
Health Coalition, with members representing about a fifth of the US population,
has been working together to exchange ideas and address public health threats
for more than two decades.
But the
“threats are growing and becoming more complicated,” said Dr. Raynard
Washington, director of public health for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina –
including from the federal government.
“There’s a lot
of conversation happening about how, in the absence of a strong federal public
health system, we are able to navigate and ensure that we continue to protect
public safety,” he said.
Consistency is
important in public health, and the federal structure helped facilitate that,
he said. But in the absence of that, coordination becomes key.
A measles
outbreak is growing quickly in the upstate region of South Carolina, just about
100 miles from Charlotte.
“I don’t have
any walls to put up to keep folks from Mecklenburg going into South Carolina,
or people from South Carolina going into Mecklenburg County,” Washington said.
“So as a country, our local public health system is only as strong as the
weakest county or jurisdiction. There is an importance of ensuring that we work
collaboratively, because the boundaries that we actually exist in are only
administrative.”
More than 100
unvaccinated students in South Carolina are in quarantine because of a measles exposure
in school – one of the many reasons why Big Cities Health Coalition emphasizes
the importance of vaccination.
Measles
outbreaks across the US continue to add to record case count
Vaccines “keep
classrooms safe and schools open. They allow children to spend time with
friends and enjoy their favorite activities. They help parents and caregivers
work to support their families,” the organizations wrote in the new letter.
Trust also plays
a key role in public health, experts say, and city health leaders want to
provide reassurance to their communities.
“CDC has been
the pinnacle of our public health science up until now. Now it seems more
driven by political ideology than actual data and science, so it undermines the
trust,” Huang said. “We’re all having to band together and provide that
credible data- and science-driven messaging.”
HHS argues it
is restoring trust that was lost during the Biden administration’s process for
approving Covid-19 vaccines.
“We are
restoring that broken trust by empowering HHS’ scientists do their jobs and
keeping out the conflicts of interests that plagued vaccine policymaking under
Biden,” it said.
But a
recent KFF poll found
that public trust in the CDC is the lowest it’s been since the Covid-19
pandemic began. Only half of adults in the US say they trust the agency to
provide reliable vaccine information, down from 57% in July and 63% in
September 2024.
“Despite all
the chaos and mixed messages, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the
health of our communities and making sure the message is clear on the
importance of vaccination,” Huang said.
