Behind the shield of “shared decision making,” the Committee essentially voted to ask women to come to a decision about the Hepatitis B virus and Hepatitis B Immunoglobulin vaccine for infants, “in consultation with a healthcare provider.”
What was almost completely ignored by ACIP Committee members both yesterday and today, with the exception of Dr. Raymond Pollak, is that we have over 30 years of compelling evidence that the public’s understanding of health and medical information is very inadequate for informed decision-making. Through very little fault of their own, more than half of US adults have low health literacy- difficulty understanding and using health information to make informed decisions. 50% of the US population reads at an 8th-grade level or lower. Poor and marginalized populations are disproportionately low health literate. As concrete examples of low health literacy, about half of adults know that viruses are not treated with antibiotics (Pew Research Center, 2017). NSF Public Understanding of Science Surveys conducted over the last 30 years show that just about 50% of US adults believe “that antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria.” https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20207/public-familiarity-with-s-t-facts Literacy also includes our numeracy skills – how well we work with numbers.
Add to this the reality that health providers vary tremendously in their communication skills and biases when communicating with patients.
I did not know this history. I do know that there is a total idiot "running" HHS. Apparently he has found lunatics to "run" the CDC. What a travesty. RESIST!
Behind the shield of “shared decision making,” the Committee essentially voted to ask women to come to a decision about the Hepatitis B virus and Hepatitis B Immunoglobulin vaccine for infants, “in consultation with a healthcare provider.”
What was almost completely ignored by ACIP Committee members both yesterday and today, with the exception of Dr. Raymond Pollak, is that we have over 30 years of compelling evidence that the public’s understanding of health and medical information is very inadequate for informed decision-making. Through very little fault of their own, more than half of US adults have low health literacy- difficulty understanding and using health information to make informed decisions. 50% of the US population reads at an 8th-grade level or lower. Poor and marginalized populations are disproportionately low health literate. As concrete examples of low health literacy, about half of adults know that viruses are not treated with antibiotics (Pew Research Center, 2017). NSF Public Understanding of Science Surveys conducted over the last 30 years show that just about 50% of US adults believe “that antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria.” https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20207/public-familiarity-with-s-t-facts Literacy also includes our numeracy skills – how well we work with numbers.
Add to this the reality that health providers vary tremendously in their communication skills and biases when communicating with patients.
I did not know this history. I do know that there is a total idiot "running" HHS. Apparently he has found lunatics to "run" the CDC. What a travesty. RESIST!
Awful. So many people are going to die because of RFK and his band of idiots.
What has this administration come to!?