A new paper released by Independent Women addresses concerns about the current U.S. vaccination schedule, arguing that while vaccines are an important tool for disease prevention, not all vaccines should be treated the same way. The report suggests that a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach may undermine both public trust and health outcomes.
In “Rethinking Vaccine Policy: A Case for Humility, Precision, and Parental Partnership,” Dr. Monique Yohanan, a physician and senior fellow at Independent Women, calls for a more transparent and evidence-based framework to evaluate vaccines. She proposes distinguishing between vaccines based on the diseases they target, their effectiveness in protecting others, and the broader consequences of mandates.
“Vaccines are one of medicine’s greatest successes, but our current approach is undermining them. They don’t all serve the same purpose, and our policies should reflect those differences. Instead, we’ve relied on one-size-fits-all mandates that are doing more harm than good,” said Dr. Yohanan.
Dr. Yohanan recommends classifying vaccines into three categories according to five criteria: communicability, disease severity, timing of exposure, immune system development, and effectiveness of intervention. This classification would separate vaccines requiring broad community participation from those mainly benefiting individuals or being unnecessary for most people.
The paper also reviews issues such as parental decision-making in vaccination choices, childhood immunity development, herd immunity concepts, historical legal changes affecting vaccine policy since the 1980s, evidence gaps in current practices, and misapplied standards.
Key recommendations include limiting liability protections to vaccines that create herd immunity (such as measles or mumps), delaying some vaccinations to align with children’s immune development stages, reducing early-life aluminum exposure by spreading out vaccinations over time instead of concentrating them within the first two years of life—aligning U.S. practices more closely with other developed countries—and removing requirements for COVID-19 and influenza shots due to limited impact on community transmission or questionable individual benefit.
The report also suggests removing hepatitis A and B from early childhood schedules except in cases where infants are born to mothers who test positive or have unknown status for hepatitis B.
“The choice before us is clear,” Yohanan writes. “Continue defending increasingly rigid policies that have broken public trust and often run counter to the evidence, or evolve toward an approach that respects both the power of vaccines and the wisdom of families. The future of vaccination programs—and the children they are meant to protect—depends on the path we choose.”
Heather R. Higgins, CEO of Independent Women Forum (IWF), commented on parental concerns about vaccine policy: “Many concerned parents are looking for answers regarding their children’s vaccine health. They know our current binary—all vaccines are wonderful at all times for all people and anyone who points out that that isn’t so is an anti-vaxxer—is false,” she said. “Through this paper, Independent Women looks at vaccine history, what we’ve learned over recent decades, and what other countries actually do and experience when it comes to vaccines and disease. This paper offers nuance and clarity rarely heard in this debate that we believe will be helpful to parents as much as to policy makers as we try to frame a reset that better serves both patients as individuals and our public health.”
Dr. Yohanan discussed her findings further in an exclusive documentary preview released by IW Features—the media arm of Independent Women—which explores her proposals for changing America’s vaccine policies.
In the documentary preview Dr. Yohanan stated: “If you look at the way we have handled some of our vaccines, the vaccines are not for the benefit of the baby, they are not for the benefit of the child.”
The full-length documentary featuring Dr. Monique Yohanan’s views on vaccination policy is expected soon from IW Features.
