Solicitation of Written Comments on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's Draft Report and Draft Recommendations for Consideration for Addressing the State of Vaccine Confidence in the United States

The National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) was established in 1987 to comply with Title XXI of the Public Health Service Act (Pub. L. 99-660) (Sec. 2105) (42 U.S. Code 300aa-5 (PDF-78 KB)). Its purpose is to advise and make recommendations to the Director of the National Vaccine Program on matters related to program responsibilities. The Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) has been designated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the Director of the National Vaccine Program. The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) is located within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NVPO provides leadership and fosters collaboration among the various federal agencies involved in vaccine and immunization activities. The NVPO also supports the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC). The NVAC advises and makes recommendations to the ASH in her capacity as the Director of National Vaccine Program on matters related to vaccine program responsibilities. Recognizing that immunizations are given across the lifespan and there are likely to be important differences in vaccine acceptance at different stages of life, in February of 2013 the National Vaccine Advisory Committee accepted an initial charge from the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) to report on how confidence in vaccines impacts the optimal use of recommended childhood vaccines in the United States, including reaching Healthy People 2020 immunization coverage targets. Focus of such a report may include understanding the determinants of vaccination acceptance among parents, what HHS should be doing to improve parental confidence in vaccine recommendations and how to best measure confidence in vaccine and vaccination to inform and evaluate interventions in the future. Through a series of teleconferences, electronic communications, presentations and public discussions during the NVAC meetings, a working group identified a number of draft recommendations to further understand and address issues of vaccine confidence in the United States. On behalf of NVAC, NVPO is soliciting public comment on the draft report and draft recommendations from a variety of stakeholders, including the general public, for consideration by the NVAC as they develop their final recommendations to the ASH. It is anticipated that the draft report and draft recommendations, as revised with consideration given to public comment and stakeholder input, will be presented to the NVAC for adoption in June 2015 at the quarterly NVAC meeting.