ACIP attacked for urging ‘shared decision-making’

CDC advisers voted for patient choice on Covid shots. But the old establishment claims it’s an “abdication of responsibility.”

Former CDC director Tom Frieden and colleagues recently published a JAMA opinion piece condemning the CDC vaccine advisory committee’s endorsement of “shared decision-making” for future Covid-19 boosters.

They argued the shift was an ethical lapse — even an “abdication of responsibility” — particularly for older adults.

But what the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) proposed was nothing radical. It was the same patient-centred model that should be used across modern medicine.

Which is why the establishment’s reaction is so revealing: the moment the subject is “vaccination,” even the most basic principles of transparency and informed consent are treated as optional — or worse, as threats.