We're standing at a crossroads in public health.
On one hand, we're witnessing an extraordinary era of vaccine innovation, new platforms, new protection and new possibilities for disease prevention. On the other hand, we're grappling with an unprecedented erosion of public trust and outbreaks to preventable diseases, such as measles. Vaccine misinformation is no longer a fringe issue. It's a mainstream force reshaping clinical workflows, public health strategies and national policy.
In 2025, the science for vaccines has never been stronger, but science is no longer enough.
Meet our expert panelists
Georges Benjamin, M.D., FACP
Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Jen Brull, M.D., FAAFP
President, American Academy of Family Physicians
William Schaffner, M.D.
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Tina Q. Tan, M.D., FAAP, FIDSA, FPIDS
Professor of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; President, Infectious Diseases Society of America
Charles Vega, M.D., FAAFP
Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Associate Dean for Culture and Community Education, University of California, Irvine
Our moderator:
Heather Stoltzfus, M.P.H., R.N., CIC
Research Nurse Program Manager, Johns Hopkins University Division of Infectious Diseases; Consultant, Broad Street Prevention; Editorial Adviser, Infection Control Today
Medical Economics and Infection Control Today brought together a powerhouse panel of experts, frontline physicians, national policy leaders and infectious disease specialists to help us make sense of this evolving landscape. We'll examine the implications of recent policy shifts, unpack the real-world impact of vaccine hesitancy, and, most importantly, discuss how we can lead with evidence, empathy and action.
This isn't just about staying informed; it's about staying engaged. And as physicians, infection preventionists, leaders and advocates, we each have a role to play in rebuilding public confidence and reinforcing the foundational promise of public health.
The following panel discussion was recorded on April 29, 2025. The full discussion is available here. This segment highlights discussion around the surge in innovation in vaccine science, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The transcript below was edited for length, style and clarity.
The good news: Vaccine innovation is flourishing
Stoltzfus: Let's discuss what we've seen over the past few years [regarding vaccine] innovation. I know we've seen a lot of significant innovation over the past few years, from vaccines for RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] to new mRNA platforms. Dr. Schaffner, how would you describe the current state of vaccine innovation in the United States?
Schaffner: The state of the research and the production of new vaccines is flourishing and exciting. Just think about this: Recently, new and improved vaccines have come out against mpox, RSV, pneumococcal infections, Lyme disease, dengue, CMV [cytomegalovirus], chikungunya. We're now thinking about giving fewer doses of HPV vaccine, because that vaccine is so fabulously effective. My goodness!
We're also thinking about new ways to deliver vaccines through microneedle patches. Maybe that will be something. Oral vaccines: What a way to deliver vaccines in the future. All of that's in the works, that kind of investigative research ferment is out there.
That said, let me remind everyone that, as our colleague [Walter M. Ornstein, M.D.] likes to say: “Vaccines don't prevent disease. Vaccination prevents disease.” A vaccine in the refrigerator has never prevented a single case of infection.
So, where we need even more investigation and innovation energy is in the delivery of vaccines. How do we bring these diverse populations in this wonderfully diverse country that we have closer to the vaccine so we can move it out of the refrigerator and into the arm? We need to do much more work. Much has to be done locally, as Dr. Vega said, by each individual health care provider.
Tan: Dr. Schaffner just summarized it fantastically. Obviously, the goal is to develop and produce the safest and most effective vaccines but if you can't get them to the patients, that's a problem. That's the issue that is becoming more widespread with these new policies and executive orders that the [President Donald J. Trump] administration has put out. For example, we were providing vaccines and other medications to low- to middle-income countries [through the United States Agency for International Development, which has been cut], and now they don't have the people to administer the vaccines, so you can't get the medication or the vaccine to these individuals. That is a major problem.
As Dr. Schaffner mentioned, there are other vaccine types that are in development — oral, intranasal — and there are other platforms that are being studied. You have viral vector platforms, you have DNA vaccine platforms, synthetic virus platforms, nanoparticle vaccine platforms. This is all very, very exciting, because they're all different platforms that are being looked at to produce safe and effective vaccines more rapidly. A new vaccine that's in development that used an mRNA platform for use in infants and children is a combination human meta pneumovirus and parainfluenza, type 3 virus. And we know that during respiratory seasons, both these viruses cause a lot of diseases in infants and children. We have to continue to advocate for the incredible research that is being done.
people to [receive] shots and the number of places to [administer] shots and improved our ability to get people to those places to get shots in arms.
That's been taken apart. We've had a lack of consistent, coherent messaging. It's all right to get your measles shot, but maybe not. This lack of coherent messaging means that we've learned nothing about risk communication, about the importance of consistent messaging that's evidence-based.
Finally, as Dr Schaffner said best, as he always does, vaccines do no one any good in the freezer on the shelf. The challenge is the administration has, quite frankly, taken apart the infrastructure to get shots in arms. The core public health infrastructure right now has been decimated already. Look at the measles outbreak that we have right now. When the funding cuts hit, that trickles down to local communities and [it] has disrupted the federal, state and local partnerships that we have for vaccines. We're very concerned about this. We're hoping, in the next 100 days, the administration reverses course. The system needs to be rebuilt.
