The biggest shift yet in U.S. vaccine policy

美国疫苗政策至今最大的一次转变

Post Reports

2025-12-12

25 分钟
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The U.S. is in the midst of its biggest overhaul yet to childhood vaccinations, and it is already impacting how families are thinking about immunizing their children.  President Donald Trump recently directed a review of the longstanding childhood vaccine schedule. And just last week, an influential vaccine panel recommended dropping the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, even though medical associations said they lacked evidence and data to support the change.  Today on “Post Reports,” national health reporter Lena Sun breaks down the implications of dropping the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, and how, if the change is approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it could affect children’s health nationwide. Then, host Martine Powers speaks with Dr. Nola Jean Ernest about how a growing skepticism toward vaccines is affecting her practice and how she is managing to make the case to patients in the Wiregrass region of Alabama that vaccines matter. Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was edited by Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks to editor Fenit Nirappil.   Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
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  • America is changing.

  • And so is the world.

  • But what's happening in America isn't just the cause of global upheaval.

  • It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.

  • I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, DC.

  • I'm Tristan Redman in London.

  • And this is the global story.

  • Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.

  • Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

  • Nola Jean Ernest is a pediatrician working in the Wiregrass region of Alabama.

  • Which is the southeast corner of Alabama where I like to say we don't have interstates and we don't have children's hospitals.

  • So the pediatricians in this area really are the frontline experts in kids' health for all of the children.

  • In her work, Dr.

  • Ernest encounters a lot of skepticism around childhood vaccines,

  • and she sees it as her job to convince her patients that vaccines are safe and effective.

  • But recently, even in the last week,

  • she has noticed a change in how some parents are thinking about the vaccine for hepatitis B,

  • which for decades has been recommended for all newborns in the US.

  • In the past, declining the hepatitis dose vaccine at birth was Pretty rare,

  • we would come up against it one or two times a year.