Immunizations Draw Scrutiny as Kennedy-Appointed CDC Panel Prepares to Meet
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel is scheduled to meet next month to discuss Covid vaccine injuries, bringing immunizations back onto the agency’s formal agenda amid a sweeping change in the panel’s membership.
Immunizations back on the ACIP agenda
A Federal Register notice posted Wednesday said the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices plans to discuss Covid vaccine injuries at the meeting and could vote on recommendations. The panel was entirely appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dismissed all previous members last year, and many of his picks are described as vaccine skeptics.
Panel makeup, criticism and past guidance
Critics have questioned the new membership. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, "Some committee members have made repeated claims about Covid vaccine harms that were either unsupported by verifiable data or reflected clear mischaracterizations of the existing scientific literature. " Osterholm also noted the committee should revisit safety questions "transparently and rigorously. "
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law San Francisco, said the panel does not typically focus on vaccine injuries. "Vaccine injuries are not a direct part of the committee’s mandates, " she wrote, and she suggested the committee might either narrow Covid vaccine recommendations or call for changes to the vaccine’s label, though label changes are typically handled by the Food and Drug Administration.
Under Health Secretary Kennedy, officials have taken steps that scale back access to Covid vaccines and signaled a harder line on mRNA technology. The CDC updated its Covid vaccine guidance in October to recommend the shots for adults 65 and older after they consult a doctor or pharmacist; previously the shots were recommended for everyone 6 months and older. Earlier this month, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced its withdrawal as a liaison group for ACIP, citing concerns about "recent changes that undermine the committee’s scientific integrity and evidence. " A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Related developments and outstanding questions
Separately, a memo from the FDA's vaccine chief said an internal review found that at least 10 children died "after and because of receiving" the Covid shot; the agency has not publicly released those findings or published them in a peer-reviewed journal. Internationally, controversy has also surrounded a U. S. -funded study in Guinea-Bissau that was halted after criticism. That trial had received $1. 6 million in funding and enrolled 14, 000 babies; its design would have given half the infants a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and delayed the dose for the other half until six weeks. The World Health Organization said withholding the birth dose for six weeks would expose newborns to "serious and potentially irreversible harm, " and Guinea-Bissau plans to introduce the birth dose in 2028.
The advisory committee last convened in 2021 to discuss myocarditis in teen boys and young men after mRNA Covid shots and later considered spacing of doses for younger people. Those prior deliberations were cited as an example of how the panel has handled rare side-effect signals in the past.
The next confirmed milestone is the ACIP meeting set for next month, when members may formally debate and vote on recommendations about Covid vaccines and related guidance.
