NJ just showed America how to protect vaccine access | Opinion – Bergen Record

When a parent takes their child to the pediatrician and asks, “Is my child up to date on vaccines?” they deserve a straight answer. They shouldn’t need a law degree, their own subscription to the latest medical journals or an affinity for perusing the federal register to get one.
And in New Jersey, thanks to legislation signed in January, they won’t need any of those things. 
Until recently, New Jersey based its immunization guidance on recommendations from the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. That approach anchored federal guidance in science, demonstrable medical evidence and a predictable framework. However, over the past year, national vaccine recommendations have shifted in ways that have left families and health care providers alike confused about what is covered, what is recommended and what children actually need. 
That uncertainty has not eased. Even as the public debate over vaccines has quieted in recent months, federal agencies are conducting a sweeping new research inquiry into vaccine safety — one that prominent, independent scientists have raised serious questions about.  
New Jersey moved swiftly and smartly in response. Outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy signed S4894/A6166, decoupling the state’s immunization policy from sole reliance on federal guidance and, when creating vaccine policy, directing the New Jersey Department of Health, or NJDOH, to consult the most respected medical bodies in the country: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Physicians. Shortly thereafter, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced the state would join the Northeast Public Health Collaborative to establish regional vaccine guidelines for New Jersey patients. Her administration additionally mandated that state insurers provide continuous, out-of-pocket free coverage for all routine and seasonal preventative vaccines.
In practice, this means a New Jersey family whose insurer might otherwise have used shifting federal guidance as a reason to deny coverage now has clarity about what’s covered. It means pediatricians from Bergen County to Atlantic City can give their patients consistent, evidence-based medical guidance — not a version that risks shifting with each successive Administration. 
New Jersey’s life sciences — the research-based biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and diagnostics companies that discover and manufacture these life-saving vaccines — continue to find new, innovative ways to treat, cure — and prevent — diseases and medical conditions. Our members have spent decades and invested billions of dollars in the scientific research, the advanced manufacturing infrastructure, and the supply and distribution chains that make routine immunization possible. We know what vaccines cost — in investment, in research, in years of clinical development — and we know what they save: lives. 
New Jersey has a long tradition of leading in life sciences. We have the highest concentration of scientists and engineers per square mile in the country. Our biopharmaceutical companies generate $120.9 billion in annual economic activity and support hundreds of thousands of New Jersey jobs. That ecosystem exists because of sustained public trust in science and sustained public investment in health. Vaccine access is part of that foundation. When it erodes — when parents can’t get straight answers about coverage, when recommendations change without clear clinical justification, when the system creates confusion where there should be clarity — we all pay the cost. 
Other states should take note. New Jersey’s approach does not require choosing between state authority and federal partnership. It requires only that vaccine guidance be grounded in the best available science and that families who want to vaccinate their children can do so without unnecessary barriers. That is a standard any state can meet. 
The most powerful thing a parent can do right now is talk to their pediatrician. Ask what vaccines your child needs. Ask what is covered. And when our public health system works the way it is supposed to — when a governor signs legislation to protect access, when a Department of Health consults the right experts, when insurers remove cost barriers —those systems then protect our families. 
New Jersey got this right. The families who depend on that decision deserve to know it. 
Chrissy Buteas is president and chief executive officer of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, a trade association representing the state’s research-based biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies. 

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