In brief
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s newly formed vaccine advisory committee is set to discuss and vote on vaccination guidelines for COVID-19, hepatitis B, and chickenpox. Amid pressure from public health officials, the committee may reconsider long-standing practices, such as administering the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, leading to worry about the consequences of these potential changes. Critics fear that the committee's focus on revisiting these guidelines, paired with Kennedy's history as a leading vaccine skeptic, could compromise children's health.
ATLANTA (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory committee meets Thursday to begin a two-day session focused on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B, and chickenpox.
Votes are expected Thursday afternoon on hepatitis B and on a combined shot against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, but Department of Health and Human Services officials have not said exactly what proposals would be considered.
Information on the meeting agenda suggests the committee may be poised to roll back — at least partly — a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. children get an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine right after birth.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and many public health officials support that decades-old practice.
Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health department director in Columbus, Ohio, reported that rates of liver disease among children have dropped tremendously due to this policy. “If it’s not broken, why change it?” she questioned, having been dismissed from the panel by Kennedy.
The committee’s chair, Martin Kulldorff, also raised the idea of suggesting that the MMRV combination shot not be given to children younger than 4 due to concerns over feverish seizures related to the first dose given to kids between ages 1 and 2.
The ACIP last addressed this issue in 2009, when it indicated that either the combination shot or separate MMR and varicella shots were acceptable for the first dose. Today, most pediatricians recommend separate doses for the initial vaccination round. Doctors and health experts have voiced concern that the committee's reconsideration could raise unnecessary questions about vaccine safety among parents, potentially hindering access to child vaccination.
The ACIP makes recommendations for already-approved vaccines to the CDC, and these are generally accepted by CDC directors and followed by healthcare providers.
Kennedy, previously a prominent vaccine skeptic, has fundamentally altered the committee's composition since taking office, dismissing numerous members and bringing in individuals with anti-vaccine viewpoints. Recently, the HHS added five more panelists, some of whom are known COVID-19 vaccine doubters.
This recalibration raises alarms among doctors and health organizations, particularly following Kennedy's decision to remove COVID-19 vaccines from CDC recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women, spurring a lawsuit from AAP and others.
The committee is expected to issue COVID-19 vaccine recommendations shortly.
