Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory panel will hold its first major meeting this week, where members are expected to vote on recommendations for shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B, and chickenpox, the AP reports.
The agenda for Thursday and Friday’s sessions in Atlanta offers little detail, and the Department of Health and Human Services has not clarified exactly what questions will be put to a vote. That lack of transparency has fueled concern among public health experts, who worry the discussions could introduce unnecessary doubts about vaccines in the minds of parents.
Even more troubling to some observers is the possibility that the committee could vote to restrict federal funding for certain vaccines, potentially preventing low-income families from accessing them. “I’m tightening my seat belt,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccines specialist at Vanderbilt University.
Known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group provides guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how approved vaccines should be used. Traditionally, CDC directors have followed ACIP’s recommendations closely, and those decisions shape doctors’ practices and national immunization programs.
Kennedy, once a high-profile critic of vaccines before assuming leadership at HHS, dismissed the 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with new members, some of whom have histories of skepticism toward vaccines.
Historically, ACIP has reaffirmed recommendations each June for shots against respiratory viruses ahead of the fall and winter season. But this past June, the committee recommended flu shots while avoiding any stance on COVID-19 vaccines.
Before that meeting, Kennedy announced he was removing COVID-19 vaccines from CDC recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women, sparking backlash from doctors’ groups and public health leaders. The American Academy of Pediatrics and others quickly filed a lawsuit in response.
The CDC later clarified that families could still access the 2024–2025 COVID-19 shots for children after consultation with their physicians, meaning they would remain eligible for coverage under the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. That program provides shots at no cost for children in families lacking adequate health insurance and accounts for about half of all pediatric immunizations in the country.
As with influenza vaccines, new COVID-19 formulations are produced annually to match circulating variants. The committee has yet to decide whether to recommend this year’s version or whether the shots will remain covered by the VFC program.
Complicating matters further, when the FDA authorized this season’s COVID-19 vaccines last month, the agency restricted their use for healthy younger children and adults. Without additional clarification from the CDC, that move could effectively block millions of children from coverage. “That would take away access for roughly half of America’s kids,” warned Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has called for continued vaccination for all children ages six months to two years.
Hepatitis B, another focus of the meeting, is a virus that causes severe liver infections. In adults it spreads through sexual contact or sharing contaminated needles, but it can also pass from mother to child at birth. Up to 90% of infants infected this way develop chronic disease.
The hepatitis B vaccine was introduced in the U.S. in 1981, and in 1991, ACIP recommended newborns receive a dose within 24 hours of birth. The early shots are particularly important for babies whose mothers are infected or not tested, with studies showing an 85–95% effectiveness in preventing chronic disease.
The practice of vaccinating newborns has been considered a major public health success, with no credible safety concerns identified in decades of research. Nonetheless, Kennedy’s newly appointed ACIP members indicated in June they want to revisit the policy. Schaffner pointed out that screening mothers alone once proved inadequate. “There were lots of failures,” he said. “And so there were continuing transmissions from mother to child.”
Chickenpox, once a nearly universal childhood illness, also remains on the agenda. The virus causes an itchy rash and fever, and though usually mild, it can sometimes lead to serious complications such as pneumonia, encephalitis, and skin infections. Adults and teens who contract it for the first time are more likely to face severe illness. The virus can also reactivate later in life as shingles.
The government first endorsed universal chickenpox vaccination for children in 1995, leading to steep declines in both cases and deaths. In 2006, the MMRV combination shot—covering measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella—was approved, and initially recommended over separate doses.
But later studies showed that young children receiving the combined MMRV shot were more likely to experience rash, fever, and rare post-vaccine seizures than those who received the shots separately. In 2009, ACIP revised its guidance to say either approach was acceptable.
Today, many pediatricians recommend separate shots for the first dose while using the combined vaccine for the second, striking a balance between effectiveness and safety.
{Matzav.com}
