The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet Dec. 4 and 5, according to a Federal Register notice that indicates that recommendation votes may be scheduled for hepatitis B vaccines.
Other items on the agenda include the childhood and adolescent immunization schedule and vaccine safety, according to the public notice.
It's the fourth meeting for the group this year, which usually meets three times per year; it will be the third meeting for the panel as reconfigured under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
When ACIP met in September, the advisors postponed a vote on the hepatitis B birth dose, concluding there hadn't been a thorough discussion on the safety, effectiveness, and timing of the vaccine. It remains to be seen if the group feels prepared for a vote this time around.
As for the childhood immunization schedule, Kennedy's new ACIP previously launched a new workgroup to study it. It's unclear if anything about the schedule would be brought to a vote at the December meeting, though the federal notice does not mention that.
Members serving on other ACIP workgroups have said their groups have largely gone silent since Kennedy started revamping the committee. Kennedy also pushed out multiple healthcare organizations that had historically served on those workgroups.
Kennedy's ACIP shakeup began in June when he removed all 17 of its members. He quickly replaced them just ahead of the group's June meeting with seven new members, including several people who made names for themselves by being contrarians during the COVID pandemic. Then, ahead of the group's September meeting, he added five more members.
During the June meeting, the new panelists voted against influenza vaccines containing thimerosal. In September, they voted against the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine in kids under age 4 years. They also voted in favor of "shared clinical decision-making" for COVID vaccines.
It's been a tumultuous several months at the CDC. Kennedy in August fired CDC's director, Susan Monarez, PhD, just weeks after the agency's Atlanta campus was shot up by a gunman who believed he was harmed by the COVID vaccine. Three other high-level leaders of the agency followed Monarez out the door.
Monarez testified at a Senate hearing about her firing that Kennedy indicated plans to change the childhood vaccine schedule without any supporting evidence.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/hepatitis/118479
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.