The West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA), providing regional health guidance as an alternative to the CDC, released seasonal vaccine guidance supporting broader COVID-19 vaccine coverage on Sept. 17. The CDC finalized its removal of blanket COVID-19 shot recommendations on Monday.
Comprising California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii, the WCHA formed on Sept. 3 as a regional response to sweeping changes to the CDC under U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promoted discredited anti-vaccine theories. The alliance issues science-based public health recommendations to inform state policy.
The FDA has approved this year’s COVID-19 vaccine only for people over age 65 and those with underlying conditions. On Monday, the CDC controversially withdrew its blanket COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, introducing hurdles to vaccine access nationwide. California will still offer insurance-covered COVID-19 shots under the AB 144 bill coinciding with WCHA vaccine guidance, though many states will not.
Harker Director of Health Services Debra Nott has been following U.S. vaccine policy closely and oversees Harker’s immunization clinics, which offer vaccines including the COVID-19 shot.
“Our clinics are run through Walgreens pharmacists, who say they are willing to immunize anyone who says they want a shot,” Nott said. “Theoretically, that person should have some kind of risk factor if they are under the age of 65. The pharmacist I work with told me they’re not going to ask you to say what that risk factor is.”
Without federal financial support for vaccines, manufacturing companies may hesitate to fund their production. Biology and research teacher Mike Pistacchi hopes that the WCHA can help continue to push vaccine production for the states in the alliance to maintain the local supply.
“[The CDC] is having a huge chilling effect on the ability and the willingness of companies to manufacture the vaccines and also for insurance companies to pay for vaccines,” Pistacchi said. “The states can apply back pressure if states get together and say, ‘No, if an insurance company wants to operate in our state, they have to pay for these vaccines regardless of the CDC’s guidance.’”
Despite changes to the CDC, some health insurance providers have pledged to continue covering vaccines for the foreseeable future, like Aetna, Kaiser and Anthem Blue Cross. Nott explained that some firms, however, may be incentivized to stop paying for optional immunizations.
“I don’t know how many insurance companies are going to follow suit and do the right thing because, as you can imagine, they are quite motivated by profit,” Nott said. “Sometimes they’ll look at the bottom line and say, ‘What would it cost if we didn’t immunize healthy people under 65?’ If they save more money by not immunizing the people who would get COVID but not get that sick, it’s a matter of deciding which choice is going to cost them less.”
WCHA vaccine recommendations may help protect the West Coast region from disease outbreaks. Biology teacher Terese Navarra worked as a vaccine scientist at the CDC, contributing to the development of the mpox vaccine. She noted that states within the Alliance, with pro-vaccine recommendations, will likely fare better in comparison to states without regional health advisory organizations like the WCHA or Northeast Public Health Collaborative (an equivalent organization on the East Coast) regarding the spread of infectious diseases.
“At least here on the West Coast, we’ll be pretty well protected,” Navarra said. “States that don’t have this coalition are likely going to start seeing outdated viruses start to spread in the community. For example, children have been getting measles, which you hardly ever see any more, in Florida and Texas.”
The CDC and FDA also split the combined MMRV (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella) for young children into two vaccines and canceled $500 million of federal funding for the mRNA vaccine. These policy changes may fuel vaccine hesitancy, create logistical burdens for families and providers and limit access for low-income recipients if removed from federal coverage programs.
Controversially, Kennedy completely replaced the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own appointees in June. With the new ACIP’s present changes to CDC vaccine policy, Pistacchi worries about the effects of political agendas on scientific vaccine advice.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s now in charge of Health and Human Services, is exerting a lot of political pressure on the CDC to pursue his agenda,” Pistacchi said. “That agenda is very skeptical of vaccines and very much pushing to limit access to vaccines across the American population. It’s not supported by science.”
Increasingly skeptical attitudes surrounding mRNA vaccines, which were developed to address the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to funding cuts for research on future mRNA vaccines. Director of Advocacy at the Medical Club Riya Samuel (11) disagrees with these policies and fears the growing public distrust in mRNA vaccines, spurred on by political figures like RFK Jr.
“A lot of science has backed up the efficacy of the mRNA vaccine, and yet RFK is making potentially misleading claims about it,” Riya said. “He is a man with so much power — he’s head of Health and Human Services, he’s backed by the president. His policies and his public statements are going to affect public trust in science and in vaccines.”
Ultimately, Navarra says, the results of these policies will affect everyone in the U.S. Herd immunity through mass vaccination can protect the more vulnerable people in our population.
“Anyone from one year old to 100 years old will reap the benefits of everybody around them being vaccinated,” Navarra said. “It’s not just to protect yourself, it’s protecting the people around you.”