Headlines this week have been focused on the firing of the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which plays a critical role in developing recommendations for how to use vaccines to control diseases in the United States. With the next regularly scheduled ACIP meeting just days away (June 25-27), we are closely watching and eager to see who the new appointees will be and look forward to the appointments being made in a timely manner.
There have also been recent updates regarding who can get the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC has revised child and adolescent and adult schedule COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. The highlights: for individuals ages 6 months through 19 years old, COVID-19 vaccines should be administered pursuant to shared-clinical decision making. In addition, the schedule no longer recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for individuals that are pregnant.
Be sure to document your shared clinical decision-making choices with vaccinations! Shared clinical decision-making can be between a pharmacist and their patient. Here is how the CDC describes it:
Unlike routine, catch-up, and risk-based recommendations, shared clinical decision-making vaccinations are not recommended for everyone in a particular age group or everyone in an identifiable risk group. Rather, shared clinical decision-making recommendations are individually based and informed by a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian.
The key distinction between routine, catch-up, and risk-based recommendations and shared clinical decision-making recommendations is the default decision to vaccinate. For routine, catch-up, and risk-based recommendations, the default decision should be to vaccinate the patient based on age group or other indication, unless contraindicated. For shared clinical decision-making recommendations, there is no default—the decision about whether or not to vaccinate may be informed by the best available evidence of who may benefit from vaccination; the individual’s characteristics, values, and preferences; the health care provider’s clinical discretion; and the characteristics of the vaccine being considered. There is not a prescribed set of considerations or decision points in the decision-making process.
