Kennedy's vaccine panel to review childhood immunization schedule
ATLANTA — At the first meeting of the CDC's panel of outside vaccine advisers since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overhauled it with new members, the group said it will review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in more than seven years.
The decision by the new group, tasked with reviewing the childhood immunization schedule, could open the door to changes on how and when children are immunized.
The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices' work groups study the latest vaccination data and develop recommendations for presentation to the committee. The work groups are mainly made up of CDC scientists and ACIP members, and can also include ACIP ex-officio members, ACIP liaison representatives, and consultants.
— Details: ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff said the committee would maintain existing work groups tasked with examining vaccines including shots for Chikungunya, influenza and mpox. New work groups will also be established, he said, including one to examine the cumulative childhood vaccine schedule as well as the adolescent schedule.
'In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it is important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,' Kulldorff said Wednesday, the first day of a two-day meeting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta. 'This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients, and the relative timing of different vaccines.'
A CDC work group will also look at vaccines that have not been studied in more than seven years, he said.
'This new vaccine group may look at the universally recommended hepatitis B vaccine at the day of birth,' Kulldorff said. 'This working group may also look at new research concerning the optimal timing of the MMR vaccine to resolve religious objections that some parents have concerning the MMR vaccine being used here in the United States, it could also look at other MMR vaccines, such as the one used in Japan,' he added.
— Key context: The work groups align with Kennedy's priorities on vaccines. He has long questioned the safety of several vaccines that children receive. But public health experts have criticized Kennedy for the push, arguing the U.S. has a strong vaccine safety monitoring system and that vaccines have saved many lives.
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