998: Recent ACIP Meeting, Emergency Preparedness Priorities

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, September 25. 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

This morning, we begin with an issue that's top of mind for public health officials across the country: the recent ACIP meeting. ASTHO's, director of infectious diseases, Kim Martin, joins us today.

Kim, can you tell us a little bit about what took place?

KIM MARTIN: 

Sure, there were three main topics that were discussed last week during the ACIP meeting. The first topic was the MMR, or the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the varicella vaccine, which is commonly known as the chickenpox vaccine. So currently, there are two options for young kids to receive these vaccines. They could either be given as a combined shot known as the MMRV, or it can be separated into two shots, the MMRV and the varicella vaccine, which is usually given in different arms. And so the ACIP revisited how kids receive these vaccines, and they made the decision that for kids under four years old, the MMR and the varicella vaccine should be given separately, not the combined MMRV vaccine. The second topic was the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose. So in this country, all kids are urged to get the hepatitis B vaccine soon after birth to prevent this very serious illness that can lead to liver problems. And so, hepatitis B is passed from the mom to the baby at birth, but it can also be passed to the baby from household contacts that have the illness. So, this birth dose is designed to prevent the baby from getting this illness. It's very safe, but the committee is considering changing the timing to delay giving this to children whose moms do not have hepatitis B when they're born. So, in the end, there were too many unanswered questions for the committee, and they wanted more time to review the data and the information.

JOHNSON: 

That covers MMRV and hepatitis B. Was there anything else discussed?

MARTIN: 

The final topic that was discussed was the COVID vaccine. It was very clear that the committee wanted to make sure that the recommendations for COVID vaccine were personalized, included more individualized information for the patient, so that they can make the best choice for themselves about whether or not to get the vaccine, and so, the committee ultimately recommended that the vaccine can be given to patients over six months of age based on individual decision-making, or what is commonly known as shared clinical decision making. So, this basically means that providers and patients are asked to have a conversation about the risks and the benefits and determine if the vaccine is right for that particular individual before getting vaccinated.

JOHNSON: 

You mentioned there was too much information for ACIP members to discuss or review during this one meeting. So, what are those next steps? Can you take us through those?

MARTIN: 

Well, first of all, it's important to remember that none of these policies are official yet, so they're now going to go to the CDC director for review to either accept or revise the recommendations, and then the committee is expected to meet again in October to discuss probably the hepatitis B, but, among other different vaccines.

JOHNSON: 

We know ASTHO will be monitoring that and letting members know. Kim, thank you so much for taking the time to recap this meeting for us.

MARTIN: 

Great. Thank you.

JOHNSON: 

To learn more about upcoming ACIP meetings, you can check out CDC's ACIP webpage. We'll have a link to that in the show notes.

VERONICA BRYANT: 

Most of our environmental health specialists had never really worked through any sort of major disaster, and so each year, we would see staff who felt unprepared to respond when emergencies happened.

JOHNSON: 

That's Veronica Bryant, emergency preparedness and outbreak coordinator with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Following hurricanes Ian and Fiona, North Carolina updated its emergency preparedness plans. What they discovered was letting other priorities get in the way had left them vulnerable.

BRYANT: 

Preparedness often takes a backseat to other daily responsibilities like inspections or other visits. Local health departments lack the access to the materials and protocols for things like sheltering, water contamination, food safety during disasters.

JOHNSON: 

North Carolina got to work to address this by identifying areas for improvement.

BRYANT: 

Our first priority was guidance and exercises for areas where our environmental health staff had the least amount of support. So we kind of, you know, talked to them and figured out things like shelters, food safety, and then responder resilience were areas that we needed to work on guidance.

JOHNSON: 

Bryant says her department used this information to develop toolkits, fact sheets, guidance documents, and even tabletop exercises to be used across the state. Learn more about North Carolina's environmental health response in an ASTHO webinar on October 29. Part one of the two-part series will focus on North and South Carolina's response tactics during extreme weather events and how your state can learn from past accomplishments. You can register for the event now, just click the link in the show notes.

Finally, today, ASTHO extends a hearty welcome to new member Dr. Mark McDaniel, the state health official for West Virginia. McDaniel has more than 25 years of multidisciplinary medical experience with a dual career in both military and civilian healthcare leadership. To read about all of his many roles, check out McDaniel's bio using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson, you're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.