STAT – The Vaccine Integrity Project is here to help: “Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services floated new standards for vaccine approvals, rescinded longstanding Covid-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women, and fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee. These actions represent a significant shift in the federal government’s approach to vaccine policy and the safeguarding of the public’s health. The Vaccine Integrity Project, launched in April by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, anticipated this trajectory and the risks posed to the widely shared goal of protecting people from vaccine-preventable diseases. Its mission is simple and urgent: to ensure that vaccine use in the United States remains grounded in the best available evidence and focused squarely on protecting the public. Over the past several months, the project has engaged more than 80 stakeholders, including clinicians, academics, public health officials, insurers, and industry leaders, to assess how nongovernmental actors can defend vaccine science and use at a time when official public health channels are under stress. What emerged was a shared recognition of two immediate priorities: continuing the development and dissemination of trusted evidence-based immunization guidance and countering the spread of inaccurate health information. The Vaccine Integrity Project will soon publish its findings from these stakeholder engagements in a final report, concluding the work of its steering committee and signaling an end to its exploratory phase, shifting its focus to action. To that end, later this summer, the Vaccine Integrity Project is convening experts from across the vaccination ecosystem to assess the evidence on influenza, RSV, and Covid-19. Our partners will use this evidence base to develop immunization guidelines…”