News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Opinion Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and Parikh Worldwide Media does not officially endorse, and is not responsible or liable for them. I t should not be newsworthy for the American Acad- emy of Pediatrics to issue vaccine recommendations, as it did last week. The organization, which represents about 67,000 pediatricians, has done so every year since 1935, in close coordination with the federal government. Yet AAP’s latest guidance is a ray of hope, as it explicitly rebukes Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to upend the childhood immunization schedule. Even more heartening is that the document was quickly endorsed by 12 other major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Obstetri- cians and Gynecologists. Last month, HHS announced it would overhaul the vaccine schedule by removing universal vaccine rec- ommendations for six diseases (out of 17), including influenza, rotavirus and meningococcal disease. In doing so, it sidestepped the standard processes that has long governed vaccine policy and ignored decades of rigorous, evidence-based guidance. AAP’s guidance rejected those changes. Its recom- mended vaccines mirror what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously endorsed. There’s no question this was the right call. Influenza remains one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable hospitalization and death. Last season was among the most severe in years, according to the CDC’s own data, causing at least 560,000 hospitalizations and 38,000 deaths. Rotavirus once caused more than 55,000 pediat- ric hospitalizations annually; routine vaccination has cut this by about 80 percent. Meningococcal disease, while less common, is rapidly progressive and often fatal or permanently disabling, making prevention through vac- cination especially critical. Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician and chair of AAP’s infec- tious diseases committee, told me the federal govern- ment’s recommendations are no longer grounded in evidence. “I think most pediatricians recognize what’s going on is really not acceptable and really so far out of the norm that we’re going to continue to follow the sci- ence,” he said. That stance is not just symbolic; AAP’s decision to publicly break from federal guidance carries concrete advantages. First, it provides legal and professional clar- ity for clinicians who worry about potential liability. It helps establish standard of care and reassures physicians that continuing to recommend vaccines is mainstream, responsible pediatric practice. Second, the guidelines help clinicians navigate grow- ing confusion among parents who are hearing conflict- ing messages. By pointing to a single, unified schedule endorsed by major medical societies, clinicians can confidently explain why this guidance - rather than the suddenly revised federal one - is the right one to follow. “This is the one based on science, this is the one that is going to best protect your children,” O’Leary said. “All of the medical professional societies agree, and this is what I recommend.” Finally, it provides a clear template that other institu- tions can rely on. Many large health systems, including Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Dartmouth and Children’s Hos- pital of Philadelphia, have already announced that they will follow AAP’s guidance. Many state health departments have as well. Both the West Coast Health Alliance, which includes California, Hawaii, Oregon andWashington, and the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which includes Connecticut, NewYork, Massachusetts and seven others, have indicat- ed they will follow AAP’s lead. In total, 27 states and D.C. - including four led by Republican governors - have said they will not heed the CDC’s new vaccine schedule and instead rely on its prior guidance or recommendations from external medical organizations. O’Leary thinks insurers will probably follow suit. AHIP, the trade group representing major U.S. health insurers, announced in September that companies will continue to cover all vaccines previously recommended by the CDC through 2026. He expects coverage to persist beyond that because vaccination makes economic sense. “It actually saves themmoney by preventing hospitaliza- tions and deaths,” he said. Taken together, these moves may blunt some of the most damaging effects of Kennedy’s policies. Physi- cians can still recommend routine immunizations with confidence. And even as trust in federal guidance erodes, clinicians and families can turn to trusted medical insti- tutions. Of course, some states will gladly follow Kennedy’s anti-vaccine crusade. And there are limits to what medi- cal societies can do. They would have limited ways to protect access to vaccines if the government were to withdraw approvals or weaken liability protections for manufacturers so much that vaccine production became financially untenable. These worst-case hypotheticals might sound extreme, but so did the idea that the CDC would retreat from its gold-standard childhood immunization guidance. That is precisely why medical organizations must remain aligned and prepare to push back, before vaccines - rather that the diseases they once prevented - are relegated to the history books. Leana S. Wen, a Washington Post contributing columnist who writes the newsletter The Checkup with Dr. Wen, is an emergency physi- cian, clinical associate professor at George Washington University and author of “Lifelines: A Doc- tor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.” Previously, she served as Baltimore’s health commissioner.. -TheWashington Post By Leana S.Wen News India Times (February 7, 2026 - February 13, 2026) February 13, 2026 4 Commentary RFK Jr.’s Attacks On Vaccines Just Hit AWall Of Pediatricians PHOTO:TheWashington Post Asian Countries Hedge Against China —And America M any Asian countries have decided their safest course is not choosing between the United States and China but to diversify away from both. When neither great power embraces free trade, the rest of the world will simply go elsewhere. Nine years after Trump killed the Trans-Pacific Partner- ship, which was supposed to be an economic bulwark against China, Southeast Asian countries are deepening trade among themselves through the Regional Compre- hensive Economic Partnership. The bloc excludes the U.S. Japan’s government has doled out millions in subsidies to companies like Isuzu Motors and Mitsumi Electric for moving production away from China to Southeast Asia. While Tokyo remains a close U.S. military ally, its economic planners are building redundancy rather than deepening dependence onWashington. India has pursued parallel tracks: courting investment from Japan and South Korea while poaching manufactur- ing contracts from China. Most iPhones sold in the U.S. are now made in India, for example, marking a major shift away from China in Apple’s supply chain. Just days after the European Union signed a sweeping trade agreement with India, Trump announced Monday that he finalized a deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower U.S. tariffs on imported goods from 25 percent to 18 percent. The pandemic - when Beijing paralyzed logistics by closing its borders - forced countries and companies to reassess their reliance on China as the world’s factory. The Chinese Communist Party’s growing military as- sertiveness also spurred talk of the need for “decoupling,” de-risking, or “friend-shoring.” This should have been a major opportunity for the U.S. Yet, during Trump’s second term, tariffs returned as a blunt instrument imposed on allies as much as adversar- ies. Japan and South Korea have been publicly threat- ened, cajoled and pressured to make concessions and promises to invest billions in America. Trade policy has become more personalized and transactional. China has tried to present itself as a more stable, reli- able and predictable partner. In recent weeks, the U.K. and Canada prime ministers kowtowed to Xi Jinping in misguided bids to demonstrate independence from the U.S. But that’s not a winning bet. China has a demographic time bomb due to a rapidly aging and shrinking popula- tion. Its economy is burdened by debt, mostly at the local level, that has weighed down the property sector. High youth unemployment is causing official nervousness about potential future unrest. Industrial overcapacity has raised global concerns about dumping. China’s global trade surplus of $1.2 trillion set a world record, and the country’s official growth numbers are suspect. The U.S. is far from being sidelined. It remains the world’s largest economy and its biggest consumer mar- ket. No serious country is trying to wall itself off from American trade or investment. But they are preparing for a world in which access to the U.S. market can no longer be taken for granted - and in whichWashington’s rules, once predictable, can change abruptly. These wounds are self-inflicted. There’s no sense mak- ing them worse. -Editorial Board/ TheWashington Post