This week, the CDC changed the agency’s recommended childhood immunization schedule to nearly match that of Denmark, a country that bears little similarity to the U.S. in population, health care system, and public health approach. The move shifts six vaccines from “recommended” to “shared clinical decision-making.”
Hosted by Tara Haelle and offered in conjunction with the Expert Vaccine Analysis Team (E-VAT), this webinar will give you access to quotable experts on vaccine law, the history of the childhood immunization schedule, and the science supporting the longtime CDC schedule to help journalists report on this significant change.
January 9 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Tara Haelle
AHCJ Health Beat Leader for Infectious Diseases, Medical Studies
Tara Haelle is AHCJ’s health beat leader for infectious diseases and medical studies. She’s an independent science/health journalist, author, speaker, and photographer. Her work has appeared in the National Geographic, Scientific American, Texas Monthly, Science News, Medscape/WebMD, The New York Times, Wired, and O Magazine, among others.
She specializes in public health and medical research, particularly vaccines, infectious disease, maternal and pediatric health, mental health, healthcare disparities, and misinformation. She also covers medical research conferences and edits Long COVID Connection on Medium. Haelle earned a master’s in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and her images have appeared in Texas Monthly, NPR, the, Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere.
Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., MPH
Director, Georgetown COMPASS
Attending physician, Georgetown University
Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., MPH is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases and an attending physician at Georgetown University and the previous chief of infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota. From 2003-09, Goodman served as director of the federal Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), regulating vaccines, blood and cell and gene therapies, and then as Chief Scientist of the US FDA until 2014, serving in US leadership for numerous public health responses. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served on numerous WHO, CDC, NIH, NAM and other advisory committees and previously served as a member of GlaxoSmithKline’s board, chairing its science committee.
John D. Gräbenstein, Ph.D.
President, Vaccine Dynamics
Retired director, U.S. Dept. of Defense Vaccine Military Agency
John D. Gräbenstein, Ph.D., is a global vaccinologist, pharmacist, and public-health leader. He served 27 years in the U.S. Army Medical Department and, as a colonel, directed Department of Defense’s Military Vaccine Agency. Gräbenstein served for 13 years as Global Executive Director of Medical Affairs for Merck Vaccines. He operates Vaccine Dynamics, a consulting service on vaccinology and has no conflicts of interest. He is a Member of he National Academy of Medicine.
Sean O’Leary, M.D., MPH
Professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz
Director, Colorado Pediatric Practice-Based Research Network
Sean T. O’Leary, M.D., MPH, is a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. He is also an investigator at Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) and director of the Colorado Children’s Outcomes Network (COCONet), a pediatric practice-based research network.
His research focuses on prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases through understanding clinical, attitudinal, and infrastructural barriers to vaccination, and developing and testing interventions to address those barriers. O’Leary is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on School Health, serves as chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases, and served for many years as AAP liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), serving on many ACIP work groups. He also serves as co-chair of the Policy Committee for Immunize Colorado and has been a speaker at the NFID Clinical Vaccinology Course since 2015.
Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Ph.D.
Professor of law & James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation, UC San Francisco
Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Ph.D., is a professor of law and the James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation at UC Law in San Francisco. Now a nationally recognized expert on vaccine law, Reiss received her undergraduate degree in law and political science from the Faculty of Law in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her PhD from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at the University of California Berkeley. Her current research and activities focus on legal and policy issues related to vaccines. She writes about vaccines mandates, policy responses to non-vaccinating, tort issues and administrative issues related to vaccines, and the anti-vaccine movement.