Pediatrician John Snyder provides vaccine information to Tenzin Dekey, who had taken his 1-year-old son to Amherst Pediatrics for an annual exam. He accepted the vaccines Snyder recommended. Karen Brown/New England Public Media hide title toggle title Karen Brown/New England Public Media Dr. John Snyder, of Amherst, Massachusetts, has been practicing pediatrics for 30 years.
Pediatrician John Snyder provides vaccine information to Tenzin Dekey, who had taken his 1-year-old son to Amherst Pediatrics for an annual exam. He accepted the vaccines Snyder recommended.
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
hide title
toggle title
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
Dr. John Snyder, of Amherst, Massachusetts, has been practicing pediatrics for 30 years. Whenever she wanted to find the most up-to-date research on treating young patients, she turned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If you wanted to know more about a measles or hantavirus outbreak, you would pore over the weekly CDC report that came to you by email.
If a patient’s family was traveling to Africa or Asia, I would consult the CDC’s latest vaccine recommendations for foreign travel.
And if family members at his practice in Amherst, Massachusetts, expressed concern about the potential side effects of a shot, he could always send them to the CDC’s website to bolster his argument for getting vaccinated.
Public trust in the CDC has hit roadblocks during infectious disease outbreaks, but for medical professionals, Snyder said, “the CDC used to be, worldwide, the most trusted source of information about public health and infectious diseases.”
However, even doctors began to lose trust, Snyder said, after Donald Trump was elected president again. Trump quickly chose anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.
John Snyder is a pediatrician at Amherst Pediatrics in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
hide title
toggle title
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
Within months of his confirmation as secretary, Kennedy fired all members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory board and replaced them with new appointees, some of them prominent vaccine skeptics.
“It became a disreputable source of information,” Snyder said.
This breakdown in scientific trust in the CDC has put many pediatricians like Snyder in a bind, as they no longer turn to America’s top public health agency and instead look for ways to fill the information gap. Some doctors are launching their own vaccine education efforts, sometimes in collaboration with local public health departments.
On January 5, the CDC removed some vaccines from the recommended immunization schedule for all children, against the advice of leading medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The number of recommended vaccines dropped as the agency removed vaccines against rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease from the list.
The agency did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In March, after medical groups sued, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return to previous guidelines. The administration has appealed the judge’s decision.
Something “shocking” to say to patients
The back-and-forth “creates a lot of confusion in the public,” Snyder said. “And it’s very confusing even for health care providers.”
That’s why he’s trying to make it clear to patients what the evidence shows, even if that means going against the federal government. His practice, Amherst Pediatrics, changed its website to say, “The CDC is no longer considered a reliable or legitimate source of information.”
“It’s shocking that we have to say that,” Snyder said. Instead, the site directs families to get information from their own doctor, the state of Massachusetts, or nongovernmental medical organizations, including the AAP.
The independent health website Valley Vax advertises on the sides of buses in western Massachusetts.
Kiko Malín
hide title
toggle title
Kiko Malín
In the exam room, Snyder has more tense conversations with families. She said some parents are explicit that they want to follow what the CDC recommends. “Even if they don’t say that, we’ve definitely seen growing doubts and questions,” he said. “All of that interferes with our protection of children.”
One spring afternoon, several of Snyder’s young patients came to Amherst Pediatrics for routine visits.
“Let’s talk about vaccines,” Snyder told a mother, Tenzin Dekey, who was there with her 1-year-old son. Snyder explained that her son was due for the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, in addition to the chickenpox vaccine.
“So that’s four shots, two in each leg,” he said, as he handed Dekey CDC information sheets about the vaccines. She looked at them and accepted the shots.
Ironically, the information sheets are emblazoned with the CDC logo, as required by law, even though Amherst Pediatrics has explicitly steered patients away from the CDC. Snyder said he hates that disconnect.
“This has been a source of heated discussion,” he said. “How can we say, ‘Don’t trust the CDC when it comes to vaccines,’ and yet here is the information we give to our own patients when they are in the office about vaccines?”
Another mother took her 14-year-old son to his annual physical. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Melissa, so she could speak freely about her family’s private health problems.
The Amherst Pediatrics Children’s Vaccine Store.
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
hide title
toggle title
Karen Brown/New England Public Media
Snyder recommended the HPV vaccine, which helps prevent some cancers. Although Melissa had refused the HPV vaccine at a previous visit, this time she left the decision in her son’s hands. He agreed. But regarding other vaccines, she wouldn’t budge.
“I’m a resounding ‘no’ to Covid,” he told Snyder.
“We could talk about that if you want,” he suggested.
“I don’t need to talk about that,” she replied.
After the appointment, Melissa said she no longer knows who to trust when it comes to vaccine safety. You used to get information from the CDC, but you don’t anymore.
“I’m concerned that it’s become too politicized and I don’t like politics,” he said. “Now I prefer to hear things from people, from health professionals.”
Such distrust and confusion inspired Snyder to join an independent vaccine information campaign, along with other pediatric practices and health departments in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts.
New coalition launches new website
The campaign website, which is promoted in Snyder’s waiting room, is called Valley Vax. It sidesteps the CDC and highlights advice from local doctors and national medical groups, including the AAP.
Valley Vax bought ads on the sides of buses in western Massachusetts to promote the site, featuring the faces and testimonials of local doctors, including Snyder.
“We wanted something that would be familiar and appealing to them and that they could trust more,” said Kiko Malin, director of Amherst’s public health department, who coordinates the Valley Vax effort.
He said organizers decided not to openly criticize the CDC.
“Some of the information from the CDC is reasonable. It appears they are doing a good job of tracking rates of influenza-like illness in the country,” Malin said. “It’s important not to completely rule out an organization.”
Still, he said it’s the first time he’s had to contradict CDC health information. “That’s not a comfortable place to be at all,” he said.
Other health leaders are also joining together to spread evidence-based information. At the state level, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, frustrated with the CDC, operate the West Coast Health Alliance to “ensure the public has access to credible information.” And the governors of 14 states and Guam created the Governors’ Public Health Alliance in response to declining trust in federal health agencies.
At the local level, some public health departments are partnering with community leaders to reach people who have stopped listening to government institutions but “have strong connections within their faith community or have strong connections within their neighborhood,” said Adriane Casalotti, spokesperson for the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Like Amherst, many local health departments now direct people to professional medical organizations rather than the CDC, Casalotti said, because those groups’ advice may change slightly as science evolves, but is unlikely to change with every lawsuit against the government.
This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with New England Public Media and KFF Health News.
{For more tech updates, stay tuned to our blog.|Keep following us for the latest insights.|Check back often for more exciting news!}
