Public Engagement

Opportunities to Inform Recommendations of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) Vaccine Safety Working Group

HHS Commitment to Conversation

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is committed to obtaining broad public input on vaccine safety and the vaccination program. Since 2000, HHS has sponsored public and stakeholder engagement on vaccine safety, pandemic influenza — the latter including consideration of priorities for vaccination, community strategies, and protecting vulnerable populations. HHS will continue to seek public input on its vaccination program policies.

The National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) is a Federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The NVAC is seeking broad public input into the scientific research agenda being developed by the CDC's Immunization Safety Office (ISO).

Input from members of the general public, citizens groups, parents, physicians, nurses, and other health care providers, public health practitioners, academics, and policy makers will help inform the thinking of NVAC recommendations as they are finalized and forwarded to the ISO as it structures the scientific agenda.

ISO's scientific agenda identifies vaccine safety issues to consider for scientific study over the next five years, in addition to any new questions that may arise. Since not all questions and issues can be addressed at once, setting priorities is also important.

ISO's draft scientific agenda can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/00_pdf/draft_agenda_recommendations_080404.pdf and the addendum at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/00_pdf/draft_recommendations_add_080410.pdf

Opportunities for Public and Stakeholder Comment

Past Public Dialogues

• Comments as of May 13
  The NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group issued a Federal Register notice on April 13, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 69) requesting comments from the public on its draft report on the draft Immunization Safety Office (ISO) Scientific Agenda. The public comment period closed May 13, 2009. View comments.
• March 2009 Stakeholder Meeting
  A Stakeholder Meeting occurred on March 16, 2009 at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., where participants discussed gaps in the draft ISO Scientific Agenda and draft prioritization criteria.

• Sampling Public Values and Perspectives on Vaccine Safety through Community Dialogue
  Public engagement meetings were held in December 2008 and January 2009 to identify local community values and concerns, which would contribute to the content and prioritization of scientific actions in the ISO agenda. The meetings took place in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 13, 2008; Ashland, Oregon, on January 10, 2009; and Indianapolis, Indiana, on January 17, 2009. These locations were chosen in order to hear from people in different parts of the country and those who might have had different perspectives on vaccine safety. (For example, parents in Ashland more often seek exemptions to school immunization laws for their children than do parents in the other communities.) Each of the meetings included about 50-70 community members.

  Participants were sought through outreach from a variety of community networks, including health care providers, school-based and home-school-based organizations, alternative medicine providers, and the local media. Because the purpose of these meetings was to hear from a broad cross-section of community members, participation was limited to people who live in the local area, with emphasis on parents or guardians of children under 18 years old.

  Public meetings lasted a full day and included educational presentations, small group deliberations, and full group discussions. The primary objective was to identify participants' values and concerns which will contribute to identifying gaps and prioritization of scientific activities in the ISO agenda.

• Providing Written Comments
  "The NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group issued a Federal Register notice on April 13, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 69) requesting comments from the public on its draft report on the draft Immunization Safety Office (ISO) Scientific Agenda. The public comment period closed May 13, 2009.

  NVPO issued a Request for Information in the Federal Register on January 2, 2009 (Vol. 74, No. 1). Written comments received by the deadline of February 2, 2009, were summarized and provided in full to the NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group. View comments.

• Public Meeting of the NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group
  On February 4, 2008, the NVAC Vaccine Safety Working Group held a half-day public meeting in Washington, DC from 8:00am to 12:30pm EST to discuss the outcomes of the three public engagement sessions (Birmingham, Alabama; Ashland, Oregon; and Indianapolis, Indiana) and written comments received by HHS is response to our Request for Information. View the Webcast.