“Colorado I think is really leading the way on this,” said David Higgins, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who was part of the stakeholder group that helped craft the bill. He said he was unaware of any other state that has taken a similar step, which he called “groundbreaking.”
A group of former committee members, including Edwin Asturias from the University of Colorado, published an article in JAMA Network Monday, titled Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at a Crossroads. They wrote that the changes to the ACIP, combined with the “recent reduction of CDC staff dedicated to immunizations have left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened.”
“I think in Colorado we really are pretty protected,” from recommendations from the new ACIP panel, which may diverge sharply from those of the key medical groups, said Allison Kempe, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Kempe served on the ACIP from 2013 to 2018.