Defending vaccines: AMA, nursing leaders speak out

Medical groups have been speaking out against changes in federal vaccine policy under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

They have also said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is stirring more confusion about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

Bobby Mukkamala, MD, president of the American Medical Association, and Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, are urging Kennedy and federal health agencies to tell Americans about the importance of vaccines.

In separate interviews with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Mukkamala and Mensik Kennedy says that muddled messages could lead to fewer people getting vaccinated. They both worry that could lead to spikes in flu and COVID-19 cases in the coming months, which could strain hospitals, doctors and nurses. (For a deeper dive, check out our story on concerns about flu and Covid season.)

At a time when there is growing confusion and skepticism of vaccines, it’s worth listening to what the presidents of organizations representing doctors and nurses have to say on the subject.

Mukkamala, who is based in Flint, Michigan, said he’s worried about the ramifications “if we keep going in the wrong direction.”

“This is the city of Flint. We have a vaccination rate in our city that's one of the lowest in the country, right? I hear about the measles outbreak in Texas, and I look at their rate of vaccinations, and then I look at ours, and we're a couple percent below that, and we're not even in the news. And that's happening in Flint, Michigan. It's happening everywhere, and that's a concern,” he said.

He also worried about the potential for hospitals facing an influx of patients, adding more stress that they don’t need. “These are things that we should try to avoid,” he says.

“We have hospitals that are struggling. We have physicians that are struggling,” he says.

Mensik Kennedy criticized recent federal guidance for COVID-19 vaccines, which do not recommend them for healthy adults. The vaccines are recommended for Americans over 65, and younger people with health complications. But with the current guidelines, some Americans may need a prescription to get COVID-19 shots.

Mensik Kennedy says she hopes “we can have Secretary Kennedy come back out and, be very, very clear that, of course, he would recommend people to get it and to remove any barrier that people think we would just got put in place.”

The federal guidance on Covid vaccines also obscures the fact that healthy people should get the shots to boost their own protection and to help protect those who are older and more vulnerable.

“We're protecting those who are vulnerable around us. You're protecting your grandmother, you're protecting your grandfather and other elderly and other immune compromised individuals,” she says.

If there isn’t better guidance on the value of vaccination, Mensik Kennedy says she’s worried that “we will have bad flu, bad covid seasons.”