Kennedy's US vaccine panel breaks norms, plans to review immunization schedule

The Sun

26-06-2025

CHICAGO: U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s newly reconstituted vaccine advisory panel said during its first meeting on Wednesday that it would study the schedule of childhood and adolescent immunizations and review the use of older vaccines.
The advisory panel has already strayed from norms and procedures designed to ensure scientific rigor and consensus, vaccine advisers and former government employees told Reuters, and one prominent medical group has boycotted the meeting, which is unfolding under intense scrutiny.
Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety, this month fired all 17 members of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with his own picks.
At least two CDC staff members left over the changes. Major medical experts and former members of the panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, have expressed concern over its reconstitution.
The influential American Academy of Pediatrics, which typically sends a non-voting representative to the meeting and takes part in work groups, boycotted the meeting in protest, saying it would publish its own evidence-based childhood vaccine schedule.
One of its newly appointed members, Dr. Michael Ross, unexpectedly withdrew from the panel, further fueling concerns about the internal dynamics of the reshaped group. More than half of the remaining seven members have advocated against vaccines.
The outcome of the meeting is critical, as the panel's recommendations influence the official U.S. immunization schedule, determine insurance coverage for vaccines and guide procurement for the CDC's Vaccines for Children program.
Committee chair Dr. Martin Kulldorff - a biostatistician and epidemiologist who publicly criticized COVID-19 lockdowns and was fired from Harvard for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine - said the panel will review the total number of vaccines U.S. children and adolescents receive, which he said exceeds those given to children in other developed nations.
The group will also evaluate individual vaccines as well as the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule.
"This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients and the relative timing of different vaccines," he said.
Kulldorff also said the panel would study the use of a combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella shot as well as research on the optimal timing of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine "to resolve religious objections" that some parents have regarding the shot used in the U.S.
An area of focus at the two-day meeting is vaccines containing thimerosal, long targeted by anti-vaccine advocates despite broad scientific consensus on its safety.
Wednesday's scheduled vote on the use of an RSV vaccine in children was postponed.
Recommendations are typically sent to the CDC director for approval, but the nominee has not yet been confirmed. Nominee Susan Monarez testified at a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.
BREAKING NORMS
Typically, vaccine advisory meetings require months of preparation and multiple subcommittee meetings with career CDC experts, panel members and outside experts who review scientific data and present recommendations for the committee to consider and vote on.
Agendas and voting questions are posted publicly weeks before to allow for public comment.
Instead, the final meeting agenda was posted on the CDC's website on Tuesday then changed to shift who would be making a presentation on the newly added topic of the use of thimerosal in flu vaccines, a preservative that has been largely phased out of U.S. vaccines.
That Thursday presentation will be led by Lyn Redwood, former leader of the Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy.
Redwood's slide presentation on thimerosal's effects on the brain, released on Tuesday, included a reference to a study that does not exist, the listed author told Reuters. The presentation has since been updated to remove the reference.
COVID-19 and influenza work group meetings to prepare for Wednesday's panel were canceled because no new ACIP members had been assigned, members of the groups said.
An HHS spokesperson disputed the concerns relayed to Reuters, saying the additions and scheduling decisions were made transparently and in line with established procedures.
"The normal process is for material and issues that are brought before the full committee to come through the work groups. Those are the subcommittees," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease and vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who serves on the influenza work group.
During the meeting, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, a recently named Food and Drug Administration representative known as an "ex-officio" participant, questioned a CDC representative on the reliability of its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy data. Hoeg has opposed key U.S. COVID-19 health policies.
Her questioning was unusual, according to two former CDC staff members and one current liaison to the ACIP panel who were monitoring the meeting.
"The ex-officios usually are there to answer questions and rarely ask questions," Schaffner said of Hoeg's comments.