The American Lung Association launched a campaign to remind people of the importance of immunizations, with flu season ramping up and confusion swirling over COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
The Lung Association warned that millions of Americans get sick from respiratory illnesses each year. Last year alone, about 82 million flu cases led to about 37 million medical visits, up to 1.3 million hospitalizations, and between 127,000 and 130,000 deaths, according to the organization.
Dr. David Hill, chair of the American Lung Association board of directors, said it has gotten harder lately to convince people to get vaccinated.
“It’s frustrating,” Hill said. “Vaccination is undoubtedly perhaps the most important public health success in human history, and there are very few severe side effects, and they’re rare from vaccination. Anything that’s being done to limit vaccination from a public health standpoint is a bad idea.”
He noted how mixed messages seem to have contributed to recent measles outbreaks after measles had been declared eradicated.
Hill was critical of those he said cherry-pick from small studies that raise issues with vaccines.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a noted vaccine skeptic who has remade the expert advisory panel that develops vaccine recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy also announced the government would stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women. His department canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding for mRNA vaccine development, the vaccine technology that led to fast-developed COVID-19 shots during the pandemic.
The CDC recently updated its advice for COVID-19 vaccines, recommending them only after a patient consults their health care provider.
The Lung Association said in its news release announcing the awareness campaign that the COVID-19 shot is recommended for everyone 6 months and older with “shared clinical decision-making,” which refers to the consultation recommended by the CDC.
“I think the language in the press release is mirroring what the CDC has said,” Hill said. “It is not necessarily an endorsement of what the CDC has said.”
Hill said the Lung Association was disappointed in the CDC’s shared decision-making recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines.
“We feel pretty strongly that COVID-19 vaccination is safe and effective, and shared decision-making really adds an extra burden that’s going to discourage some people from getting vaccinated,” Hill said.
The Lung Association said it is raising awareness of the importance of vaccinations to guard against flu, COVID-19, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), pertussis (whooping cough), and pneumococcal pneumonia.
Hill said communities are better protected from these viruses when more people are vaccinated. Even young, healthy people can get vaccinated against some viruses to protect vulnerable people around them, he said.
“I think that goes for caregivers,” Hill said. “It goes for people who are seeing their grandparents or parents regularly.”
Children are at risk for COVID-19 and flu, Hill said. He mentioned new research pointing to the increased risk of long COVID for children who get multiple infections.
“These are not benign diseases,” Hill said.
He said any rhetoric that sows confusion or policies that put up barriers to vaccinations are detrimental to public health.
“No one particularly likes getting a vaccine and an injection. And anything we do to make it harder for people to do that decreases the vaccination rate,” Hill said. “I know in my own practice that when I have the ability to talk to my patients about the benefits and the minimal risks of vaccines, getting them vaccinated when I see them is much easier than trying to convince somebody out in public that you should go get a vaccine today.”
Every vaccine can have side effects, he said. But the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines have been well-documented, Hill said.
“Adverse side effects are very, very rare,” he said. “Side effects that do occur tend to be mild and short-lived. And COVID-19, again, even in healthy people, can lead to significant illness, loss of time from work, loss of productivity, and, in a substantial minority of people, to long COVID symptoms.”
The campaign comes as public health officials navigate changing federal guidance under the Trump administration, with Kennedy’s influence at the Department of Health and Human Services representing a significant shift in federal vaccine policy compared to previous administrations.
