A federal vaccine committee reeling from its previous members being fired abruptly no longer plans to vote on COVID, HPV and meningococcal vaccines when it meets next week. However, it has added a discussion on thimerosal, a flu vaccine additive that is the subject of misinformation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also added a discussion of measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine (MMRV) and shortened its meeting from three days to two — June 25-26. It will be the first for the eight new members appointed last week by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he fired the previous group.
A draft agenda released Wednesday includes votes on a new respiratory syncytial virus immunization for infants and flu vaccines, as originally announced earlier this month.
The agenda, however, does not included previously announced votes on COVID, HPV and meningococcal vaccines. COVID-19 vaccine recommendations have been in flux in recent weeks as health officials circumvented the usual process of acquiring ACIP input. The CDC removed routine recommendations for children and announced families who want to get their child vaccinated could do so after a conversation with their health care provider. ACIP is scheduled to discuss COVID vaccines, but no vote is scheduled.
The agenda also no longer includes proposals to reduce the number of recommended HPV vaccine doses and reword recommendations on the ages to get vaccinated. In addition, ACIP will not be voting on Sanofi’s meningococcal conjugate vaccine MenQuadfi, which recently received FDA approval for use in children ages 6 weeks and older.
New additions to the agenda include a discussion and vote on the preservative thimerosal in flu vaccines. Vaccine skeptics have claimed thimerosal is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders including autism. However, several valid studies have debunked this, according to an AAP Fact Checked article.
No additional details were available on what sparked the discussion about thimerosal or another new agenda item — proposed recommendations for use of the MMRV in children under 4 years.
Fewer CDC staff members than usual are scheduled to make presentations at the meeting following reports of several key staff members resigning and being removed.
The AAP has been highly critical of Kennedy’s recent moves to unilaterally make COVID vaccine decisions, fire ACIP members and appoint new ACIP members who have a history of voicing skepticism about vaccines and spreading vaccine misinformation.
AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D., FAAP, previously said the ACIP appointments “confirm our fears and represent a radical departure from ACIP’s core mission.”
“We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines,” Dr. Kressly said when the terminations were announced. “Creating confusion around proven vaccines endangers families’ health and contributes to the spread of preventable diseases.”
Following the meeting, the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases will examine the evidence to make its own recommendations as it typically does after ACIP has deliberated.
Some of ACIP’s recommendations from its April meeting also are awaiting approval, including use of GSK’s pentavalent meningococcal vaccine (MenABCWY; Penmenvy) for adolescents and young adults. In the absence of a CDC director to approve the recommendations, Kennedy signed off on ACIP’s chikungunya vaccine recommendations in mid-May, but he did not take action on other recommendations.
