Evidence-based Vaccine Guidance - Vaccine Integrity Project

#1

This is probably the best place for vaccine guidance now since the US government agencies have become so politicized and non-evidence based.

From Nature:

Volunteer scientists work ‘nights and weekends’ to guide vaccine advice in US

Medical specialists, wary of the guidance provided by Trump’s team, offer up their own advice independently of the government.

  • NEWS EXPLAINER
  • 06 October 2025

Scientists volunteering their time have contributed to medical-society guidelines on vaccines for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.Credit: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post/Getty

A group of US researchers, physicians and public-health specialists, many of them volunteers, have stepped in to assess data to guide immunization recommendations in the wake of reversals in vaccine policy by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP) was conceived by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. It set out to review the scientific literature to advise professional societies, which issue guidelines — usually derived from official advice — that are followed by many clinicians. The initial results of the review are already being reflected in vaccine guidelines issued by medical societies and certain US states. (The review’s results have not yet been peer reviewed, but will be submitted to a journal later this week.)

“I am taking my nights and weekends and every other spare minute I can find to devote to this project,” says Caitlin Dugdale, an infectious-disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a volunteer for the project. “I really believe in the importance of having an independent, unbiased group of people look at the data and present the data publicly.”

Why did scientists take action?

The VIP initiative’s review follows changes to the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which issues influential vaccine recommendations for the US population. In June, US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long-time anti-vaccine activist, fired the entire panel; he has since hand-picked 12 new members.

Last month, the ACIP recommended putting restrictions on the use of a childhood vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV). It also stopped short of recommending COVID-19 vaccines, instead advising that people make their own decision about whether to get vaccinated — a reversal of previous policy. The panel has yet to advise on vaccines against influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), but the committee’s initial decisions raise doubts about its credibility, those behind the VIP say.

And from Medscape:

The VIP is a response to the gaps left by federal changes that have altered the dissemination of evidence-based scientific information, according to CIDRAP. In advance of the upcoming respiratory virus season, the VIP presented its first live-streamed webinar on August 19 with data on influenza, COVID, and RSV vaccines, focusing on indications for pregnant women, children, and immunocompromised individuals.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/vaccine-integrity-project-fills-information-gap-2025a1000mkw

Project Overview

CIDRAP’s Vaccine Integrity Project is an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the U.S. so that it remains grounded in the best available science, free from external influence, and focused on optimizing protection of individuals, families, and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases.

More related news and information:

5 Likes
#2

Doctor groups need to ‘step up to the plate’ as CDC guidance becomes harder to trust, former leaders say

BOSTON — It’s getting harder to trust guidance coming out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, creating an opening for physician groups to step up and fill the void, two former top agency officials said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the STAT Summit, former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and Dan Jernigan, the former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, stopped short of saying they no longer trust the CDC. They said some information, like that on maternal health, foodborne illnesses, and international travel, appears to remain reliable.

The remarks from Walensky and Jernigan point to the ongoing fracturing and loss of trust in the public health infrastructure in the U.S. Already, several independent efforts to evaluate and recommend vaccines have cropped up, and a group of Democratic governors are forming their own public health group.

“If [states] can’t trust what’s on the CDC website, then we’re having a significant impact on what happens at the local level, where people actually engage with public health, and that is something that we don’t want to see,” Jernigan said.

Read the full article: Doctor groups need to ‘step up to the plate’ as CDC guidance becomes harder to trust, former leaders say (STAT)

1 Like
#3

Unfortunately, I don’t trust most physician groups. The leadership of many of these groups do not represent physicians in general.

3 Likes
#4

I have to say that, as a physician, true evidence-based guidance has not existed for a very long time. Priorities and what gets published have carried strong political and worldview components stretching back decades. And while we may be replacing one politicized perspective with another under the new administration, there’s no reason to believe that the previous one was any more “scientific” than the new approach.

This is evident as many of us now realize that much of what we were taught about nutrition and lipid science was ill-founded, and that the “science” was influenced by organizations with religious biases or financial incentives. Physicians, like most humans, seek tribal membership; the desire to be liked or to avoid speaking out against established dogma is extremely powerful when one fears rejection or professional ruin. Plus in medical school the amount of information we have to absorb is like drinking from a firehose. If you pause to examine or critique, you will be left in the dust.

I’m done with my rant.

1 Like
#5

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/about-us/cidrap-staff

One sole MD ](Eve Lackritz, MD | CIDRAP) out of 32 in the staff.

2 Likes