immunize.org President and CEO Kelley Moore, MD, MPH, on the ACIP's Plans to Change Vaccination Information Statements

The following transcript has been lightly edited for style.

Patient Care: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also voted to add topics to the COVID-19 vaccination information statement, or VIS, and for these topics to be discussed as part of informed consent conversations in the clinic. Are vaccine information statements under the purview of ACIP or CDC?

Kelly Moore, MD, MPH: So the ACIP is not responsible for Vaccine Information statements, but the CDC is. So CDC writes those statements in consultation with other groups, but they are responsible for developing those. We've never seen a recommendation quite like this, so we really don't know how it will be carried out. The types of risks and uncertainties that they described were vague. They're not substantiated by strong science. They are in some ways, highly disputed areas or areas that really require more research because we don't fully understand them. I don't know how CDC will take to the idea of adding speculative concerns to a statement that's given to every person who receives these vaccines. So we'll just have to wait and see on that.

Kelly L Moore, MD, MPH, is the president and CEO of immunize.org and a leader in national and global vaccine policy and immunization program implementation. She has served in a variety of immunization policy advisory roles with the World Health Organization since 2016, including as chair of its Immunization Practices Advisory Committee. She has a long history with the ACIP as a working group member, liaison representative of the Association of Immunization Managers (2011–2015), and as a voting member (2015–2019).