Jason L. Schwartz
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jasonlschwartz.bsky.social
Jason L. Schwartz
@jasonlschwartz.bsky.social

Associate Professor of Health Policy and the History of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health. Vaccine policy, health policy-making, pharmaceuticals, FDA/CDC, etc. http://jschwartz.yale.edu

Public Health 40%
Economics 20%
Pinned
Things are very bad for U.S. vaccination policy these days and are only going to get worse. In @nejm.org, I examine the recent news about COVID-19 vaccines and ACIP, what likely lies ahead, and what the medical and public health communities should do to lessen the damage www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Revised Recommendations for Covid-19 Vaccines — U.S. Vaccination Policy under Threat | NEJM
A series of recent actions by the Trump administration upend the country’s approach to Covid-19 vaccination and may portend a broader shift in the government’s role in protecting the public health.
www.nejm.org

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

Scoop: The Trump admin is planning to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, per person familiar.

The proposed new schedule would recommend fewer vaccines, bringing it close to or in line with Denmark’s schedule.
Comes weeks after Trump demanded an expedited review: www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/h...
HHS planning to overhaul childhood vaccine schedule to recommend fewer shots, source says | CNN
The US Department of Health and Human Services is planning to overhaul the schedule of recommended vaccines for children in the US, a person familiar with the plans told CNN on Thursday.
www.cnn.com

Stand down (for now). Hearing now that that announcement scheduled for tomorrow has abruptly been delayed until after the holidays.
Yeah I’m hearing bad (worse) things are coming.
I would be willing to place a large bet that tomorrow’s “MAHA Wins” announcement with RFK Jr and Tracy Beth Hoeg will not in fact make children’s health better

My strong hunch is that it will be awful for child health

Yeah I’m hearing bad (worse) things are coming.
I would be willing to place a large bet that tomorrow’s “MAHA Wins” announcement with RFK Jr and Tracy Beth Hoeg will not in fact make children’s health better

My strong hunch is that it will be awful for child health

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

I would be willing to place a large bet that tomorrow’s “MAHA Wins” announcement with RFK Jr and Tracy Beth Hoeg will not in fact make children’s health better

My strong hunch is that it will be awful for child health

Imagine for a second the avalanche of tweets and YouTube videos excoriating this had Peter Marks done anything even remotely as irresponsible.
Guy who spent years scolding everyone about “gold standard science”

How did Prasad make such a mistake?
—> Apparently, rather than waiting for the finalized report he had ordered, he sent staff the Nov. 28 memo before scientists completed their assigned work
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faus...
Opinion | FDA Vax Chief Jumped the Gun on Claims of Kid Deaths From COVID Shots
Vinay Prasad's conclusions overshot what the agency's analysts ultimately found
www.medpagetoday.com

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

Guy who spent years scolding everyone about “gold standard science”

How did Prasad make such a mistake?
—> Apparently, rather than waiting for the finalized report he had ordered, he sent staff the Nov. 28 memo before scientists completed their assigned work
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/faus...
Opinion | FDA Vax Chief Jumped the Gun on Claims of Kid Deaths From COVID Shots
Vinay Prasad's conclusions overshot what the agency's analysts ultimately found
www.medpagetoday.com

And I made my improv debut, playing a dad with varying degrees of concern about the MMR vaccine while the pediatrician modeled different approaches to addressing them—with equal parts evidence and empathy—to build trust and respond to ‘my’ fears

Contrary to the claim made at ACIP that med students are just told to memorize the CDC schedule, I just spent a great hour with the @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social 1st year students alongside an ID doc and a pediatrician talking about measles, vaccine hesitancy, and how to talk w/ parents with concerns

Very grateful for the unambiguous support—encouragement, even—from @yalesph.bsky.social for all of us who might have something to contribute to the public conversation regarding the areas we study. Even when our perspectives might not be shared or loved by those currently in power.

Whenever I see a university-based vaccine expert quoted in a news story and identified in an extremely roundabout way that avoids naming their school, my stomach sinks a bit, imagining the likely ‘guidance’ from those schools to faculty about not getting on the government’s bad side.

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

The longer the evidence is delayed, “the more it raises questions about what’s really under the hood regarding these allegations," @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
FDA to update regulations after unconfirmed claims of Covid vaccine-linked death
Announcement, and lack of details in the weeks following, represents major departure from previous FDA priorities
www.theguardian.com
The FDA says more information about claims that Covid vaccines resulted in death - for children and adults - will be coming "soon." But experts say the delay has been "striking." My latest:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
FDA to update regulations after unconfirmed claims of Covid vaccine-linked death
Announcement, and lack of details in the weeks following, represents major departure from previous FDA priorities
www.theguardian.com

How long until the usual suspects roll out a litany of alleged serious methodological flaws that call the results into question? (The standard playbook, along with attributing any positive vaccine research to COIs.)

Positive news about COVID vaccines for kids published in MMWR! (Sad to immediately think that CDC employees may have risked their jobs in order to publish it…) www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

Do you know an amazing post-doc interested in FDA policy and maybe even with some Delphi experience? Send them our way - we're looking to hire on our new project ASAP!
postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2025-1...

Joined @ctpublic.bsky.social this morning to talk about the latest developments in vaccine policy—and a fair bit of historical context, too. www.ctpublic.org/show/where-w...
CT doctors react to CDC's changing pediatric vaccine recommendations
We’ll dig into the history of vaccines in America, check in with Connecticut doctors and ask the state's top public health official what's next.
www.ctpublic.org

The future is looking bleak for school vaccination requirements, generally, and restrictions on religious exemptions, specifically.

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

Supreme Court Questions N.Y. Ban on Religious Exemptions for Vaccines
Supreme Court Questions N.Y. Ban on Religious Exemptions for Vaccines
www.nytimes.com
🚨 Predoc Opportunity at Yale! 🚨

Care about research that changes policy?

My research team works within state government to advance evidence and learning for a smarter safety net!

And our predocs have excellent PhD placements. Apply here!

#EconSky #EconTwitter #Predoc #ResearchJobs #HealthPolicy
Economics of the Safety Net
tobin.yale.edu

Hopped on BBC World Service for a few minutes this afternoon to talk ACIP/HepB and what it all means. (Begins at 15:10; I wasn’t asked for World Cup analysis…) www.bbc.com/audio/play/w...
BBC Audio | Newshour | Fifa reveals 2026 World Cup match locations
More teams, more matches and some likely to be played at very high temperatures
www.bbc.com

And I think people have forgotten that they kicked the tires on this bromance back in 2016-17 but it died out and the first Trump admin was very conventional re: vaccines. (I wrote something about it back then.) I’d read something that revisited that first period in light of what we are seeing now!

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

A lot of the history and shape of American public health is explained by civil society (professions, health care institutions, philanthropy, even payers) designing policy to circumvent governments they never trusted. Ideal? Not even close. But now, there might be something useful in that DNA.
As if it wasn’t clear long ago, it’s time to accept that the days of relying on the federal gov’t to lead vaccination work is over (for now, at least) and to focus on alternatives as if the longstanding HHS/CDC activities don’t exist. Because they don’t anymore! Time to be proactive, not reactive.
The U.S. childhood vaccine schedule is increasingly in jeopardy.

President Trump late Friday announced he has directed federal health officials to consider aligning the U.S. with other countries that recommend fewer shots. wapo.st/4atob4M

Or the morning after the election, really.

Months ago (pre-purge), colleagues I respect cautioned me about sounding the alarm about threats to ACIP (and vaccine policy generally), lest it undermine/delegitimize those things needlessly. So I waited until June (after RFK changed COVID recs, but before the purge). Probably too late even then.
As if it wasn’t clear long ago, it’s time to accept that the days of relying on the federal gov’t to lead vaccination work is over (for now, at least) and to focus on alternatives as if the longstanding HHS/CDC activities don’t exist. Because they don’t anymore! Time to be proactive, not reactive.
The U.S. childhood vaccine schedule is increasingly in jeopardy.

President Trump late Friday announced he has directed federal health officials to consider aligning the U.S. with other countries that recommend fewer shots. wapo.st/4atob4M
Trump orders review of childhood vaccine schedule, calls U.S. an ‘outlier’
His announcement came hours after CDC advisers eliminated a long-standing recommendation for every newborn to receive a hepatitis B shot.
wapo.st

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

This week's ACIP meeting was filled with false and misleading statements that are not supported by evidence. Here's an explanation of that evidence by two experienced science writers, one of whom has a PhD in Immunology from Yale:

www.factcheck.org/2025/12/vacc...
Vaccine Panel, Voting to Change Hepatitis B Shot for Newborns, Shares Misleading Information - FactCheck.org
Upending decades-old guidance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee voted to no longer issue a blanket recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vac...
www.factcheck.org
Oh this is just a ridiculous assertion from Tracy Beth Hoeg, even if she tried to hedge her causal suggestion in her comments.

I’ve been watching ACIP meetings since 2006 and have spent a lot of time with their meeting materials going back to 1964. If there’s ever been another outside speaker who’s had 90 uninterrupted minutes to opine—let alone a non-scientist/physician/public-health expert—it’d be news to me.
Aaron Siri has had the longest airtime of any presenter at the two days of ACIP.
No CDC experts were allowed formal speaking slots.
No infectious disease, pediatric or immunology specialists were given formal time to speak.

#Medsky #IDsky #pediatrics #vaccines #CDC

Reposted by Jason L. Schwartz

Aaron Siri has had the longest airtime of any presenter at the two days of ACIP.
No CDC experts were allowed formal speaking slots.
No infectious disease, pediatric or immunology specialists were given formal time to speak.

#Medsky #IDsky #pediatrics #vaccines #CDC

When I teach about vaccine safety and VAERS (its strengths and limitations), I open the VAERS website and show how we could submit a report right then in a matter of minutes.
Attorney Siri is now pontificating about VAERS and is falsely claiming that submitting a report to VAERS is difficult.

This claim is laughable. Literally anyone can submit a report there.