31 Comments
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BS's avatar

This is a top-ten YLE post for me.

Lauren O'Connell's avatar

This is outstanding. It should be included in medical school curricula!!

Aimee Pugh Bernard, PhD's avatar

Amazingly helpful! Just added the table and a link to this article in a talk about 'navigating vaccine conversations' I'm giving today to a physician group (pediatric heart transplant society). Thank you!

Shelley N. Facente, PhD, MPH's avatar

Yes!! This is a brilliant post, and is the missing link I needed to help with better communications around this very thing. Thank you!

Janice Schroeder's avatar

Thank you for this and your other posts. They are so appreciated. Reagrding vaccines, I share this article and my deep concerns.

As you may be very aware already, RFK Jr. plans to use CDC money to fund a study of resource-poor Guinea-Bissau's newborns to delay a Hepatitis B vaccination in one group with potentially terrible life/health consequences for infants in that delayed Hepatitis B vaccination group. Please read the pediatric doctor's article.

https://portside.org/2026-01-23/rfk-jrs-tuskegee-experiment?

What effective action can we take to stop this?

With a heavy heart,

Janice

David Paul's avatar

Thank you for taking the time to develop this insightful table of responses. It is also important to remember that newborn's don't have an autonomous say in their healthcare decisions. We appropriately default to parental autonomy in most health care decisions. The changed recommendations that include shared decision making, shift the balance towards parental autonomy and away from protecting the newborn. Not suggesting that this point should be part of the conversation with parents as it would just be more inflammatory. It just really concerns me that as we are seeing more and more vaccine preventable illness in newborns who don't have a say in preventing these outcomes.

Sami Pederson's avatar

This is absolutely one of the best YLE posts I've read. So much of what is happening is really difficult to put into clear words, but Dr. P does it very articulately. We can recognize when something is being construed or manipulated, but explaining why is often difficult. Thank you!!! Saving this post for future reference.

Alecia's avatar

This is why I continue to support this Substack. I’ve been in clinical research my whole life and I find where we are today maddening. We have to shed light on the rhetoric they are disseminating …this is definitely going to be shared.

Claire Boissevain-Crooke's avatar

Even before MAHA, these concepts were often misunderstood by patients. RFK Jr's rhetorical twists and slight of hand have made communication so much harder! Excellent post!

Amy Goldstein's avatar

Thank you for the clarity!!

Susan Scheid's avatar

Outstanding post. The public communications expertise demonstrated by Team YLE is THE model that everyone involved in public health should follow and use. Thank you!

Miriam Diken's avatar

Wow, this is incredibly helpful. I was unaware of these linguistic nuances and really appreciate the insight. Thank you!

Vicki Morris's avatar

Excellent elucidation! (Most of us don’t study rhetoric anymore, but the sources seeking to undermine vaccines obviously have) Thank you for this explanation, and addition to our toolkit!

Karen S's avatar

This is brilliant. Thanks very much. I'm retired but I know this will be very helpful to health professionals and public health professionals as they help families to get their children immunized dedpite the poor decisions at HHS and CDC.

Lisa Lisk, M.A., Ed.'s avatar

So helpful! I own a small home preschool and require childhood vaccinations. Does it make sense to now use the phrase “we follow the recommended vaccine schedule of the AAP”? I used to say CDC. Wording would be appreciated, thanks.

Katelyn Jetelina's avatar

Yes that’s exactly what I would say if I were you. AAP continues to be a steady head throughout this

Judith Berghuis's avatar

Thank you, YLE, for this explanation.

DHHS has made the world of public school vaccine requirements so very much harder.

Your wisdom and concern is gratefully accepted.