CDC still misleading people with outdated Covid vaccine information

Despite approving a major policy shift, the CDC continues to distribute vaccine information it knows is no longer accurate — denying people informed consent.

Last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took a decisive turn on Covid vaccination policy.

In September, its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to scrap blanket Covid-19 vaccine recommendations and replace them with individualised clinical decision-making across all age groups.

At the same meeting, the committee voted unanimously to strengthen informed consent by overhauling the Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) — the document that underpins patient decision-making at the point of vaccination.

The message from ACIP was clear. Patients should be told, in plain language, what is known, what remains uncertain, and how risks and benefits vary between individuals.

“Informed consent is back,” said Deputy Secretary O’Neill at the time, praising ACIP for educating Americans about “important vaccine safety signals.”

That endorsement should have triggered immediate changes to the information forms used across the country.

But months later, not a single one of those changes has been made.