David Higgins
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drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
2K followers 330 following 330 posts

Pediatrician | Public Health Specialist | Immunization Delivery Researcher | Dad | Views are my own. CommunityImmunity@Substack

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This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets. As of January 2022, the discovery of 612,011 numbered minor planets are credited to 1,141 astronomers and 253 observatories, telescopes or surveys (see § Discovering dedicated institutions). .. more

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Reposted by David Higgins

cidrap.bsky.social
CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 2d
The nearly 80-year-old law that could hamper RFK Jr.’s drive to remake vaccine schedule

Legal experts say Kennedy needs to follow established legal procedures to prevent any policy changes from being dismissed by a judge.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr cc

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
Removing universal protections would increase disease, disrupt vaccine supply and access (especially combination vaccines), threaten Medicaid and VFC coverage, raise clinician liability risk, and create chaos for families, clinics, and schools.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
The U.S. isn’t an outlier among peers—many high-income countries (Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Italy, Spain) use similar routine schedules.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
“Fewer vaccines” isn’t a public-health goal. What matters is fewer illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, disabilities, missed work and school, and financial burdens.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
The predictable result is fewer children getting vaccinated on time and a rise in preventable illnesses, hospitalizations, disabilities, suffering, and deaths, along with missed school and work, and high costs to families and communities. This would not make America healthier.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
Denmark’s narrower schedule works because it is embedded in a very different system: universal health care, paid parental leave, centralized vaccine financing and supply, national coverage monitoring, and a smaller, more homogeneous population. The U.S. does not have those conditions at scale.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
National vaccine schedules cannot be copy-pasted.

This is dangerous vaccine policy. The confusion and disruption would be immediate.

As I told WaPo, "I have never been more concerned about the future of vaccines and children’s health than I am now.”

1/6🧵

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/h...
R.F.K. Jr. Likely to Swap U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule for Denmark’s
www.nytimes.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 6d
Yes! I will recommend what is best for the health of my patients. Period.

Reposted by David Higgins, Lisa Diedrich

publichealthguy1.bsky.social
public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 6d
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social: "many clinics and pediatricians will simply say they don’t recommend the Denmark schedule, which will worsen parental confusion. School vaccination requirements are set by state laws, and most require some of the vaccines that aren’t on the Denmark schedule" 🎁
Under RFK Jr., U.S. plans to stop recommending most vaccines, defer to doctors
The plan, which is not finalized, suggests children get fewer shots and shifts to a model telling parents to consult doctors to make their own vaccine choices.
wapo.st

Reposted by David Higgins

caulfieldtim.bsky.social
Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 8d
Petty infantile vengeance vs objective science?

Are we surprised MAGA/MAHA has embraced science-free rage? So on-brand. Still unbelievable.

American Academy of Pediatrics loses HHS funding after criticizing RFK Jr. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/... cc @ameracadpeds.bsky.social
American Academy of Pediatrics loses HHS funding after criticizing RFK Jr.
HHS cuts key AAP grants, citing concerns about “identity-based language” and insufficient focus on agency priorities. The organization said the cuts could harm child health.
www.washingtonpost.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 10d
It also takes a closer look at a little-noticed federal meeting, scheduled on a very unusual timeline, with potentially big implications for vaccines.

🔗 communityimmunity.substack.com/p/the-proble...
The Problem Isn’t Shared Decision-Making. It’s How the ACIP Is Using It.
Why turning routine vaccine recommendations into “individual decision-making” undermines evidence-based guidance
communityimmunity.substack.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 10d
“Shared decision-making” is being invoked more and more in federal vaccine guidance.

That doesn’t mean everyone is using it the same way.

Today’s Community Immunity looks at what shared decision-making is—and what it isn’t—especially when it comes to vaccine policy.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 10d
If there’s a misperception that vaccine hesitancy is extremely high, it creates real risk at the policy and clinician level. My thoughts on this are in Medical Economics.

#VaccineConfidence
#PublicHealth
#HealthPolicy

www.medicaleconomics.com/shorts/risk-...
Risk of misperceptions about vaccine hesitancy | Medical Economics
If there is a misperception about high rates of vaccine hesitancy in patients, that creates risk at the policy level and at the physician level. David Higgins, MD, MPH, FAAP, explains.
www.medicaleconomics.com

Reposted by David Higgins, Joanna L. Grossman

lizszabo.bsky.social
Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 11d
Pregnant women vaccinated against COVID-19 less likely to be hospitalized or deliver prematurely, new data show. The study confirms the benefits of the vaccines, even as the Trump administration raises doubts about their safety.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/pre...
Log in | CIDRAP
www.cidrap.umn.edu

Reposted by David Higgins

cidrap.bsky.social
CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 11d
Racially charged language on mothers, babies taints vaccine advisory meeting
by @LizSzabo

Throughout the 2-day meeting, speakers and ACIP members singled out immigrants and people from Asia as potential sources of hepatitis B infection

www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 19d
🔗 www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Under RFK Jr., the CDC provides a megaphone to the anti-vaccine movement
Common anti-vaccine talking points were on display as the CDC’s immunization advisers repealed a hepatitis B birth vaccine recommendation and scrutinized the childhood schedule.
www.washingtonpost.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 19d
The CDC’s ACIP vaccine meeting this week was flooded with rhetoric posing as science. Confidence ≠ evidence.

As I told WaPo: misinformation wrapped in scientific authority is the most dangerous kind.

Our kids deserve better.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 20d
More in my Substack: 🔗 open.substack.com/pub/communit...
Our Kids Deserve Better
The health of America’s children shouldn't be shaped by federal dysfunction
open.substack.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 20d
ACIP’s two-day meeting was a chaotic circus of misinformation, distortion, and people speaking with confidence far beyond their expertise.

One thought kept coming back to me: our kids deserve better.

Do not come between a pediatrician and our patients’ health.

We are fiercely devoted to them.

Reposted by David Higgins

us.theconversation.com
The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 20d
“Vaccinating babies for hepatitis B at birth remains one of the clearest, most evidence-based ways to keep American children free of this lifelong, deadly infection.”
- @drhigginsmd.bsky.social, preventive medicine specialist, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Vaccine committee votes to scrap universal hepatitis B shots for newborns despite outcry from children’s health experts
The decision undoes a highly effective 34-year prevention strategy that has nearly eliminated early childhood hepatitis B infections in the U.S.
buff.ly

Reposted by David Higgins

ylepidemiologist.bsky.social
Your Local Epidemiologist @ylepidemiologist.bsky.social · 21d
9/ The vaccine schedule is only one item on ACIP’s agenda this week. This breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/2025-dec-acip-prebunk

Love,
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
Annicka Evans, PhD
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@enirenberg.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social
RSVP 4 — The Evidence Collective
evicollective.org

Reposted by David Higgins

ylepidemiologist.bsky.social
Your Local Epidemiologist @ylepidemiologist.bsky.social · 22d
11/ HBV is only one item on ACIP’s meeting agenda this week. This resource breaks it all down👉 evicollective.org/2025-dec-acip-prebunk

Love,
Annicka Evans, PhD
@drhigginsmd.bsky.social
@enirenberg.bsky.social
@sciencewhizliz.bsky.social
@unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
@ylepidemiologist.bsky.social
RSVP 4 — The Evidence Collective
evicollective.org

Reposted by David Higgins

ylepidemiologist.bsky.social
Your Local Epidemiologist @ylepidemiologist.bsky.social · 22d
1/ Tomorrow, #ACIP —the external advisory committee that guides U.S. vaccine policy—will meet for two days. Thursday’s agenda will focus on Hepatitis B (Hep B). We’re expecting to hear a few falsehoods to start circulating along with some unsupported safety concerns. Here’s what you should know 👇

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · 22d
ACIP is again considering delaying the hepatitis B birth dose, with no new evidence to support it.

New modeling shows that hundreds of preventable newborn infections could occur if the birth dose is removed.

Today’s Substack: communityimmunity.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...
#vaccines #publichealth
The Cost of a Delay
The ACIP’s hepatitis B vaccine vote could reverse decades of hard-won progress
communityimmunity.substack.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 25
CDC’s acting director recently claimed that “informed consent is back” for vaccines—implying it ever disappeared. It didn’t. The real concern isn’t a lack of informed consent, but the growing effort to twist it into fear, confusion, and "misinformed refusal".

open.substack.com/pub/communit...
Informed Consent Is Alive and Well—Despite What You’ve Been Told
Setting the record straight on how vaccine communication actually works and why some groups want you to think it’s broken
open.substack.com

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 22
Some genuinely good news!

A new study found the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab cut ICU admissions and respiratory failure by ~80% in infants during their first RSV season.

This is what progress looks like. These tools are working!

#RSV #PublicHealth #Pediatrics

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...
Nirsevimab Effectiveness Against Intensive Care Unit ...
This report describes a multicenter case-control investigation that found nirsevimab was 80% effective at preventing RSV-associated ICU admissions among infants.
www.cdc.gov

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 20
It reflects a new CDC, reshaped by political appointees, that has abdicated its responsibility to provide clear, evidence-based information the public can rely on.

And it won’t just harm today’s children, families, and communities — future generations will pay the price.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 20
When clear science is rewritten as ambiguity, misinformation rushes in to fill the vacuum.

This update does not reflect the scientific rigor and integrity the CDC has upheld for nearly eight decades, across 14 presidential administrations of both parties.

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 20
🚨 Today’s CDC update to its Autism and Vaccines page is deeply troubling.

It takes a well-studied question with decades of consistent evidence and reframes it as uncertain—using a dangerous mix of misrepresentation and false equivalence.

www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safe...
Autism and Vaccines
Answers to common questions about vaccine safety and autism.
www.cdc.gov

drhigginsmd.bsky.social
David Higgins @drhigginsmd.bsky.social · Nov 20
Pew’s latest vaccine survey drew headlines like “GOP support slips”. I’ve never had a parent refuse due to party affiliation. These decisions are driven, among other things, by social norms, media, and values—not party labels.

Framing it politically only risks making it political.

bit.ly/482gijR
How Do Americans View Childhood Vaccines, Vaccine Research and Policy?
A majority of Americans say childhood vaccines are effective at preventing illness, but slightly fewer are confident that the vaccine schedule is safe.
bit.ly