When Guidelines Diverge: Navigating Vaccine Recommendations in 2025

With increasing skepticism surrounding the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), primary care physicians may be unsure which vaccine guidance to follow. In this brief video, infectious disease physician and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security senior scholar Amesh Adalja, MD, advises clinicians to turn to specialty societies for evidence-based, reliable recommendations—particularly for adult and pediatric immunization schedules.

Amesh Adalja, MD, is an adjunct assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and founder of Tracking Zebra, an infectious disease-related project management, consulting, media, and strategy firm.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

Patient Care: With professional organizations increasingly issuing their own independent guidance, how can clinicians navigate various vaccine recommendations?

Dr Adalja: I believe that the professional organizations are going to have the best vaccine recommendations because right now, ACIP is riddled with antivaccine advocates, and that is going to make what ACIP suggests or recommends medically irrelevant. Unfortunately, it will have relevance for health policy, but from a medical perspective, I would not listen to what ACIP is saying any longer. So if you're talking about vaccinating children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has always had its own independent vaccine schedule, that is going to be one to rely on. For adults, the National Foundation for infectious disease, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Medicine, and other organizations are going to come up with evidence-based vaccine schedules that make sense. And I would encourage clinicians to use those resources as they become available as we get into the into the respiratory virus season or anytime because there are vaccines that are that are indicated at any time of the year.

Explore more from our conversation with Dr Adalja:

• Amesh Adalja, MD, Breaks Down 2025 Vaccine Policy Shifts for Primary Care
• Amesh Adalja, MD, on How to Defuse Vaccine Safety Concerns Without Derailing the Visit
• Vaccine Hesitancy: Communication Strategies for Primary Care That Preserve Trust
• How PCPs Can Counter Social Media Vaccine Misinformation