Funding Postauthorization Vaccine-Safety Science

Daniel A. Salmon, Ph.D., M.P.H., Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Stanley A. Plotkin, M.D., and Robert T. Chen, M.D.

The New England Journal of Medicine, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2402379 VOL. 391 NO. 2

Published: July 6, 2024

Abstract

The United States benefits from a robust federal immunization program that has been successful in controlling and eliminating many diseases. However, the widespread vaccine hesitancy observed during the Covid-19 pandemic suggests that the public is no longer satisfied with the traditional safety goal of simply detecting and quantifying the associated risks after a vaccine has been authorized for use. The public also wants public health authorities to mitigate and prevent rare but serious adverse reactions — which no longer seem rare when vaccines are given to millions or billions of people.