Saar Kuzi
Alessandra Coutinho Fernandes
William Cope
Richard Tapping
Kashif Ahmad
Reda Sadki
Shubhra Kanti Karmaker Santu
Adam P Rusch
Elle Meisner
Nereyda Ochoa
Landon J. Kunzelman
James DotimasFA16 Immunization Module’s Updates
The social and public policy hurdles for vaccines are mainly financial
The first task in employing vaccines for public health is generating effective vaccines and the second task is to administer it in such a way that the population achieves herd immunity. The main hurdle in generating vaccines is financial for several reasons. First off, research must be conducted to both understand pathogens before vaccines could be created. This is followed by research to determine which pathogens are most critical to vaccinate against. Essentially, how do we best focus our limited resources to make the biggest health impact. This is mainly funded through federal grants which have become more competitive to win as our government tries to reduce our deficit.
For example, generating vaccines against polio verses the flu present different obstacles. Infants receive a series of vaccines which provides lifelong immunity at lost cost. Everyone gets the same vaccine year after year. The flu is completely different. There are multiple, new strains of the flu that develop every year. These strains must be analyzed and tracked so migration models can predict which strain of flu is most likely to hit the US. We then hope the models were right as we produce vaccines and wait for “flu season”.
Administering vaccines involve both financial and social hurdles. The financial hurdles are obvious; someone has to pay for the vaccines. This funding is sourced from both federal and private insurance. However, the government must set eligibility requirements for these “free” (paid for by taxpayers) vaccines. The largest social hurdle is compliance. Many schools require vaccinations for school, but some individuals receive exemption from this including the immunosuppressed, immunocompromised and those with religious objections. As we all know, falsified information linking autism to vaccines has led to resistance from the public to vaccinate their children. This is compounded when there is general distrust in medical professionals. Combatting this misinformation now requires ADDITIONAL money to combat the misconception with research and public health campaigns.
@DanielCibich Before reading your post I had not considered the financial hurdles to vaccinations. I only knew about and focused on the social obstacles to vaccinations. I would be really interested to see exactly how much money goes into vaccination development and administration especially for the flu shot since it needs to be administered every year.
@Daniel Cibich. I think this topic has been largely overlooked but it is one of the most important factors that determines the effectiveness of vaccinations in action. I agree that , though it would seem counterintuitive, there are people who can't afford to pay for and don't see the importance of vaccines as preventive measure. Also the misconception that has led to more resistance to distrust medical professionals additionally introduces more challenge that future healthcare workers should be more aware of.
@Daniel Cibich This is a very interesting point about the topic of vaccinations. It's true that the distrust of vaccines has only magnified in recent years. Many people don't understand the large financial strain behind the production of medications and vaccines; they only pay attention to costs when it comes to the final products they are paying for. I found your point about the general distrust in medical professionals to be quite insightful. That introduces a new layer of the vaccine misconception that is currently posing a problem.