Shared Decision-Making & Kids’ Vaccines: Access Concerns
- A child holds a toy bear with a band-aid after receiving a flu shot during an immunization event in Los Angeles.
- In a major change in vaccine policy, the Trump governance recently dropped recommendations that all kids get six immunizations long considered routine.
- That's when the patient (or the parents if the patient's a child) has a conversation with a health care provider to decide if a treatment is appropriate, says...
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A child holds a toy bear with a band-aid after receiving a flu shot during an immunization event in Los Angeles. flu is one of six vaccines that will no longer be given routinely but now require a consultation with a doctor.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images
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PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images
In a major change in vaccine policy, the Trump governance recently dropped recommendations that all kids get six immunizations long considered routine. Instead, they’re now in a category called “shared clinical decision-making.”
That’s when the patient (or the parents if the patient’s a child) has a conversation with a health care provider to decide if a treatment is appropriate, says Wendy Parmet, who studies health care policy at Northeastern University in Boston.
“In theory, shared clinical decision-making sounds great,” she says. But the approach is usually reserved for elaborate medical decisions where the answer is frequently enough muddy, not for routine vaccines that have been clearly shown to be safe and effective.