Jackson Hammond is a Senior Policy Analyst at Paragon Health Institute. He has been active in the federal and state health policy space since 2017.
Prior to joining Paragon, Jackson was a health care policy analyst for American Action Forum (AAF). While at AAF, his work focused on payer issues including private insurance, Medicare, and Medicare Advantage. Furthermore, Jackson wrote extensively about the 340B Program and contributed to AAF’s research on a variety of drug pricing issues.
The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will host a meeting to determine whether to lower the recommended age for the pneumococcal vaccine from 65 years of age to 50. This is an important step to improve the health of millions of Americans, and ACIP should vote to recommend. The committee will also vote to recommend one or both pneumococcal vaccines, both of which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Given the major deficit in trust the CDC is facing from the American public, the committee should vote to recommend both vaccines and allow patients and their doctors to choose the best option for themselves.
The logic to recommend the lower age is simple: The vast majority of doctors are going to prescribe a vaccine based on the CDC’s schedule, so lowering the CDC’s age recommendation means more doctors will be willing to prescribe the pneumococcal vaccine to their patients. From a personal perspective, my mother struggled with a bout of pneumonia that permanently damaged her lungs, resulting in a lifetime of repeated bronchitis infections. Increasing access to these valuable tools will help many Americans avoid a painful and dangerous disease.
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