Vaccine Policies and Public Health Concerns in Immunization Science, with Grace Lee, MD, MPH

At the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International Conference in San Francisco, a presentation titled ‘Vaccines in the Crosshairs: Facing Contemporary Challenges in Immunization Science’ was given to attendees at the pulmonology conference.

One presenter, Grace Lee, MD, MPH—known for her work as a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine—addressed contemporary challenges in immunization science on the policy side. Her portion of the talk was titled ‘Vaccine Policy in Flux: Balancing Science, Policy, and Public Health.’

“From a scientific perspective, there's a huge opportunity in the world of vaccines in terms of advancing the scientific thinking about future innovations,” Lee said. “There was a great talk in our session by Kevin Harrod, who spoke about really precise vaccine design and what might be possible to actually tailor vaccines to be very focused on how we develop an immune response.”

Lee highlighted a variety of elements from her and her co-panelists’ presentations related to vaccinations. She also spoke to the policy perspective of public health concerns surrounding immunization science.

“What I would say is, from a policy perspective, we did speak a lot about what are the policy levers that can really impact innovation, and what the policy levers are that can affect hesitancy, as well as the levers that will actually help us think about how to continue to gain trust,” Lee said. “Trust in institutions, trust in providers, trust in data, and in the science. I think that continues to be a huge challenge for all of us.”

Lee noted her former membership on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, highlighting 1 of the key components of that committee being its service to the public as a federal advisory committee, providing advice and guidance on the use of vaccines for the US civilian population.

“As part of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, one of the things that's really important to us is making sure that all decision making is done in public view,” Lee said. “So all meetings are announced in advance and are available for public both for public comment, written and oral, as well as for public to view what the public to view the decision-making process. I think that's really important, because decision-making behind closed doors doesn't engender trust. People may disagree with the decision, but at least everyone will have a look at the data that are out there, what we know and what we don't know.”

Lee later commented that she was impressed that the ATS put together a workshop looking at long-term complications of pulmonary infection, noting that this may in the future provide the chance to articulate the value of vaccines and the impact they can have on chronic conditions.

“One of the key takeaways is that the ATS has really put together a really forward-thinking workshop on how to better understand the impact of pulmonary infections on long-term outcomes in both children and adults,” Lee explained. “My hope is that with that framing, we'll be able to understand in a deeper way the impact long-term impact in one year or five years out of pulmonary infections on the health of our populations. [Hopefully we’ll be] able to articulate that vaccines not only prevent the acute infection, but also can promote long-term well-being and health.”

For additional information on this topic, view the full video above. To learn more about talks and new data presented at ATS 2025, view our latest conference coverage.

The quotes used in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.