Hésitations Vaccinales: Observatoire HESIVAXs

"The contrast with that June night in 1976 is stark. Back then, Edwards could only watch as a child died from a devastating infection that can now be prevented. In the decades since, she has helped build the tools to prevent deadly infections and the systems to ensure they are safe."

An outstanding tribute her to Dr. Edwards and her important work in vaccine safety .... and #VaccinesWork.

TL;DR Public confidence in vaccines is strong and worth protecting. But even small shifts in federal language can ripple through every exam room, especially the spreading of false rumors about harm.

The science has not shifted. The politics have. And pediatricians see the impact first when uncertainty creeps in.

With measles and pertussis climbing, we should be working together to keep the messages about immunization safety clear and rooted in real evidence.

https://lnkd.in/gpACNx4P

"It would be convenient in a way, if it were true that vaccines cause autism. Such an easy explanation would mean that public health officials have a simple way to address the surge in recorded cases of the cognitive disorder over the past few decades. It would also mean parents of children with severe symptoms have a culprit to blame and direct their frustration.


But this is a fantasy, which is obvious to anyone with eyes. Vaccination rates among children have, lamentably, fallen steadily for most of the past decade. In fact, the vaccine ingredients that activists have pointed to as the cause of autism have long been removed from almost every shot. Yet in that time, the prevalence of autism in children has only grown.

On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its website to surrender its steadfast adherence to vaccine science. The links between immunizations and autism, the site now reads, “have been ignored by health authorities.” It disputes the agency’s once-firm assertion that “vaccines do not cause autism,” stating now that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
The Post reports that the change, which echoes the views of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump, was made without consulting career scientists at the agency responsible for vaccine safety. It also blatantly violates a pledge that Kennedy made to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who delivered the key vote for his confirmation, that the “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”"

https://lnkd.in/gF4Gpd3d

"Our immune system functions as an army with soldiers working to detect and destroy invaders, said Walter Orenstein, a professor emeritus in the Emory School of Medicine.
“You would never send an army into battle if you didn’t have some training. The influenza vaccine shows the immune system what potential components of the virus it should focus its efforts on,” said Orenstein, also a former director of the U.S. Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1988 to 2004.

But because flu vaccines generally contain snippets of protein, rather than the virus itself, the shot “cannot cause influenza,” he added.
There are a few reasons some people might think otherwise. One is that when your immune system gears up to react to the proteins, your body responds as if it were a real virus, so you can develop temporary side effects that may feel similar to mild flu symptoms.
...
“When people say, ‘I got flu from the flu vaccine,’ that’s not possible. What they got was an immune response to the flu vaccine,” Offit said, noting that the actual flu causes symptoms that are much more severe.
While you can’t get the flu from the vaccine, you can get the flu shortly before or after getting the vaccine.
It takes about two weeks after vaccination to develop enough antibodies to protect against the flu. That means if you get the actual flu three days after getting the shot, for example, it wasn’t because you got the shot; it was because you got exposed to the virus before you developed protective immunity or maybe because the vaccine didn’t offer enough protection."
https://lnkd.in/gmZBUBXB

" It’s essential to remind fellow citizens that both medical science and sincere religious conviction call us to preserve life, not endanger it.


The Bible consistently lifts up compassion, wisdom and care for the vulnerable. Proverbs 24:11 teaches, “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” This is a clear call to intervene for public health. Faith is not an excuse for fear or misinformation. Instead, it compels us to cherish evidence, act with love and reject narratives that neglect the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39)."

https://lnkd.in/gRaiX6pz

I spent the past few weeks reading about trust in science and relating to health and wellbeing. Three papers stood out because they helped me see the issue more clearly and shaped the way I thought about strengthening a trustworthy health science and research ecosystem.

A few insights stayed with me:
1/ Younger-Khan shows that trust is not a single thing.
People form trust in scientific claims, scientific disciplines, scientists and institutions in different ways. These types of trust behave differently and often diverge.

People respond to scientific messages through their existing worldviews, political identities and the salience of the topic.

2/ Contessa argues that trust forms inside social environments.
People pick up trust or distrust from the communities and networks they belong to. Social groups build their own climates of credibility.

Individual-level interventions rarely shift these patterns without changes in the broader social conditions that shape how people treat information.

3/ O’Doherty explains why “trust in science” needs more precision.
He points out that people use “science” to refer to methods, institutions, experts or findings, and each one carries different trust dynamics.

Trust itself is relational and grows through interactions, expectations and histories between people and scientific institutions.


I pulled these ideas together into a short article with my notes on what they mean for a trustworthy health science and research ecosystem, across digital spaces and local communities.

I would love your thoughts.

In 2006, Cheryl Hines was making PSAs about the importance of vaccination to protect against whooping cough. She was right then.

https://lnkd.in/ei4VRaJ5

"We are doctors who trained continents apart: one of us in Sweden (Peterson) and one in India (Pai). As we worked during the 1980s and ’90s in those disparate countries, neither of us ever saw a case of measles, diphtheria, or whooping cough.

That was not a fluke. It was because the world once chose to fight these deadly childhood infections with miraculous tools called vaccines. These safe, effective, and remarkably affordable vaccines — costing as little as 60 cents per dose through UNICEF — pushed infections like polio, measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough (pertussis) to the brink of elimination in many parts of the world, even in low- and middle-income nations. The measles vaccine alone has saved nearly 94 million lives over the past 50 years.


Fast forward to 2025. We are horrified to see measles, whooping cough, and diphtheria staging a big comeback. This week, Canada lost its measles elimination status, which means the entire Americas region has also lost that status.

Kids are dying of these infections even in some of the richest regions in the world, such as Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Alberta, Canada. This is an outrage, and a completely avoidable tragedy. We are failing children and not protecting their rights.

The fact that children in 2025 are suffering from diseases that should have been consigned to history is not just a public health failure. It is a moral failure. Access to vaccines is not a privilege — it is a human right. The World Health Organization’s constitution recognizes the right to health, and vaccine access is an essential part of health care. "
https://lnkd.in/g5iNFBGr

My comments with CNN https://lnkd.in/gqV4WFiH | 13 comments on LinkedIn

If this person is trying to have a career as a stand-up comic, he might have missed the cue. On his claims though, does he look like a clown ? This story has been discussed so many times and explained in why such a decision was taken that coming back with this is laughable… But at least, kudos for the effort even if it was a disaster…

Last night, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its updated “Autism and Vaccines” webpage. The new version tells the public that the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim,” that studies suggesting a link have been “ignored by health authorities,” and that soon future updates to the webpage will reflect “Gold Standard Science.”

Deploying this “gold standard science”strategy is not happening in isolation but across the federal government. More on what this means for federal science in today's post from me, Elisabeth Marnik and Matthew Facciani.

This week was terrible: RFK Jr. put autism/vaccines at center of CDC website; ACIP is about to tank the birth dose of HBV vaccine; loans for public health/nursing degrees just got cut. I cannot express the white hot hatred I have for these people. Get on the phone. Call your representatives.

Let’s repeat this : 14 studies, 10 millions kids, and what Dr. Tom Frieden forgot to add, up to more than 20 years of follow-up. This is the extent of the literature that was not taken into account by RFK Jr’s minions who have infiltrated but the CDC and the ACIP…

“Jessica Steier, a public health scientist who specializes in science communications, argues that in calling for additional research, Mr. Kennedy is following a well-worn playbook of his movement.

“Vaccine critics like Mr. Kennedy often give the impression that scientists haven’t seriously researched whether vaccines might cause autism,” Dr. Steier wrote in an August opinion piece in The New York Times. Her own review found “more than 40 high-quality studies since 1998 involving over 5.6 million people across seven countries,” she wrote. “All found no connection between vaccines and autism.””


https://lnkd.in/ec8Gk7zG

Some people say they don't want to get the vaccine because it isn't very effective. It's true that depending on the year, flu vaccine effectiveness is typically around 40-60%. It all comes down to predicting which strains will circulate months in advance, and sometimes the virus mutates after the vaccine is already made. But here's what matters - even when it's not a perfect match, the vaccine does a great job of reducing severity, keeping people out of the hospital, and preventing deaths. You know what the effectiveness of NOT getting the vaccine is? Zero percent.

We'll take 40-60% protection over no protection any day, especially when this is predicted to be the worst flu season in a decade.

@dav

Wallonie : le carnet vaccinal électronique sécurisé entrera en vigueur en janvier 2026

➡️ Le dispositif s’appuie sur le Réseau Santé Wallon, où les données de vaccination sont déjà accessibles en toute sécurité. A lire dans Le Spécialiste https://lnkd.in/eFQv4H2p

➡️ Avec la Vaccicard, l’ensemble des informations vaccinales sera désormais centralisé dans un coffre-fort numérique régional, ce qui mettra un terme au recours au carnet papier.

➡️ Le décret adapte le Code wallon de l’action sociale et de la santé afin de relier les logiciels des vaccinateurs au coffre-fort sanitaire et d’uniformiser les modalités d’enregistrement.


Yves Coppieters Abrumet - Réseau Santé Bruxellois GBO/Cartel ABSyM-BVAS SSMG asbl (Société Scientifique de Médecine Générale) RESUMES (Réseau multidisciplinaire d'échange scientifique)

About that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in.

Here's what I saw.

A strange mishmash of influencers, anti-ageing entrepreneurs, Big Business leaders (Walmart, Google) and top govt officials gathered at the ritzy Waldorf Astoria in DC. Notably absent were any academic researchers or clinicians. Instead, panelists criticized the medical establishment all day long.

For example: the NIH director complained that the agency doesn't do enough innovative research. “What puts lives at risk is doing research that’s incremental,” Bhattacharya said. “All it does is advance the careers of the researchers that do it. It results in publications that don’t get used and aren’t replicable.”

Vice President JD Vance said the quiet part out loud, alluding to COVID-19: “As we found out the hard way over the last few years,” very often that people outside the scientific mainstream “were right and all the experts were wrong”, he said, to loud cheers from the audience.

And then there was Bryan Johnson, a Silicon Valley multimillionaire known for his extreme anti-ageing ‘biohacks’, like receiving plasma from his teenage son. Johnson, on a quest to live forever, wants “competing for the best biomarkers of anybody in the world” to be something of a new sport.

The summit also exposed rifts in MAHA world. Some hailed treatments like psychedelics & new obesity drugs. But that's against the anti-pharma ethos that permeates MAHA. “I don’t like taking medications,” Vance said, pointing to ibuprofen. “I don’t like taking anything unless I absolutely have to.”

Even some MAHA supporters were frustrated by the lack of scientists. One woman argued that you need the scientific establishment to enact change from within. “But they’re seen as all corrupt by Kennedy and his inner circle,” she told me, who “want to punish them for their role in COVID”.

The summit was something of a coming-of-age moment for MAHA: It began as a loose network of RFK Jr supporters around the country. But now it has the ear of top Trump/MAGA officials, Big Business, and influencers. They're thinking about cementing MAHA's legacy beyond RFK, attendees told me.

And yes, the swag bags. Attendees received MAHA-branded tote bags with:

- Packets of creatine
- Beef tallow potato chips ($79 for a 6-pack!!)
- Mouth tape
- RFK Jr's biography
- Beef protein bars

Read my full story, link in the comments. | 11 comments on LinkedIn

𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐬-𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐯𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞́ 𝐝𝐞 𝐜𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐢 𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐱 𝐄́𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐬-𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞̀𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐞́𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐞́𝐞 ?

Le 𝐂𝐃𝐂 reprend aujourd’hui des éléments de langage proches de ceux de 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐲 𝐉𝐫., faisant passer des croyances avant les faits et la science.

C’est un tournant 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞̂𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐞́𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭.

Rappelons-le : le mythe d’un lien 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐬–𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐞 repose sur un article de 1988, identifié comme une 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 et 𝐫𝐞́𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞́.
Toutes les études sérieuses convergent : 𝐚𝐮𝐜𝐮𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧 𝐧’𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞.
Ressortir cette fable — après l’épisode du “paracétamol qui donnerait l’autisme” lui-même abandonné aussi vite qu’il avait été lancé –, c’est 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐮𝐫 de détourner la population des vaccins.

Et les conséquences sont connues : lors de la dernière épidémie de 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐞, des 𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞́𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 aux USA d’une maladie évitable.

Une question essentielle se pose :
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞́𝐭𝐞́ 𝐞𝐬𝐭-𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐳 𝐫𝐞́𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞́𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚̀ 𝐮𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐢 𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐭 𝐥𝐚 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 ?

Mobilisons nous et préparons nous à défendre les faits, la science et la connaissance.
Partout. Toujours.

𝐍𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐬 𝐞́𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐞̀𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐮 𝐌𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐧 Â𝐠𝐞.

Yannick NEUDER, Stephanie RIST, Dominique Costagliola, Herve Maisonneuve, France Universités, Inserm, CNRS, Edouard GEFFRAY, PHILIPPE BAPTISTE, Sébastien Lecornu, Emmanuel Macron

Decades of rigorous and scientifically sound research have proven that vaccines do not cause autism. CDC’s sudden decision to change language on its website reversing that finding is reckless and harmful.

Our statement with HIVMA, APIC, SHEA and SIDP: https://bit.ly/3XEc0KH

Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams tells The Hill's NewsNation that vaccine #misinformation in the U.S. endangers public health and should be more aggressively addressed, saying that false claims about vaccine safety and effectiveness of routine #immunizations have eroded trust, contributed to lower vaccination rates and led to outbreaks. Adams adds that skepticism or inquiry is not the same as spreading falsehoods, and also warns that branding all doubts as 'misinformation' can alienate people who are cautious about #vaccines. He calls for clearer, more consistent public health messaging, stronger efforts by leaders and health professionals to counter false narratives, and support for communities inundated with misleading information. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dVtbG4-M

When the CDC bases their latest vaccine autism not on demonstrated facts but on alternative ones. The example presented here clearly shows how wrong their reasoning is in trying to claim that the facts don`t disprove any link between vaccines and autism. To try to make vaccines guilty while they were proven not guilty is wrong. Why ? In french, removing one l from null defines the rationale of RFK Jr... Nul defines someone really bad in knowledge... Ah l

Book 'Vaccines and Vaccinations for Adults: A European Textbook' now available!

We are very proud to announce that today the book 'Vaccines and Vaccinations for Adults: A European Textbook' has been made available both online for download and as paper copies to be ordered.

To download single chapters or the full book, go to the link:
https://lnkd.in/dqdUgETJ

The book has been promoted and edited by the Adult Immunization Board (AIB) (https://lnkd.in/djJBmPTG), an international board of experts aiming at spreading the culture of adult immunisation and promoting its implementation in Europe.

The Adult Immunization Board is a joint initiative of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and the University of Florence, Italy

"Maybe the baby whose death is making the rounds in anti-vaccine circles died from vaccines; it’s not certain, but it’s possible. Because of that doubt, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) – which is designed to be generous and is supposed to compensate in cases of doubt – was right to compensate her [family]. That said, the decision had several parts that were poorly reasoned. Furthermore, this case does not indicate that vaccines are unsafe; if anything, the weak evidence, lack of supporting studies, and extreme rarity of such cases highlight how safe vaccines are."

Harmful myths suggesting that vaccines cause autism sow fear and distrust in vaccines, ultimately jeopardizing the great progress we’ve made in preventing serious childhood diseases. For decades, scientists have studied the potential causes of autism, and have repeatedly found no credible link between childhood vaccines and autism. Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children and does a disservice to our autistic community.   

Read our full fact-check to learn more: https://bit.ly/4nI0Rnb | 21 comments on LinkedIn