Two long-planned vaccine meetings \u2014 one at the US Centers for Disease Control and another at the US Food and Drug Administration \u2014 have now been disrupted under the watch of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stirring questions about whether seasonal flu shots or other lifesaving vaccines will be delayed or harder to access. <\/p>\n
The February meeting of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, was postponed \u201cto accommodate public comment,\u201d according to a note online. The three-day meeting, <\/strong>which had been scheduled for this week, was to review the safety and effectiveness of vaccines for meningococcal disease, which is seeing a resurgence, as well as RSV, flu, chikungunya and mpox. It also included two votes related to Vaccines for Children, the government program that buys and distributes vaccines to state and local health departments for children whose families wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to pay for them. <\/p>\n ACIP typically meets three times a year, in February, June and October. There\u2019s no word on whether or when the February meeting will be rescheduled and it\u2019s unclear whether the delay will hinder access to shots. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, the FDA canceled a March 13 meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which was to discuss the recipe manufacturers must follow to make this fall\u2019s flu shots. No explanation was given for the cancellation. <\/p>\n \u201cThe FDA will make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 influenza season,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n The uncertainty around the government\u2019s process for regulating and recommending vaccines comes as the US is in the grips of a brutal flu season and experiencing a resurgence of measles, a vaccine preventable disease. Experts say these infections are increasing because of growing hesitancy to use vaccines, something they fear the new HHS director will only encourage. <\/p>\n Kennedy maintains that he is not anti-vaccine, but he has repeatedly cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of immunizations and questioned the research and regulations that allow them to be used. <\/p>\n Kennedy, whose financial disclosures show he has made money from law firms that sue vaccine manufacturers, has also impugned some of the experts who advise federal agencies on vaccines. During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy <\/strong>incorrectly <\/strong>stated that 97% of the members of the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory committee had conflicts of interest. In fact, the panel has strict policies to guard against conflicts, and a screening process for members to ensure they are impartial when they vote. <\/p>\n Members of FDA\u2019s vaccine committee are also subject to strict conflict of interest rules and are required to disclose potential conflicts during meetings. <\/p>\n This week, former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden wrote that false claims that ACIP members vote based on their financial ties is among the \u201cmost damaging\u201d falsehoods about vaccines. <\/p>\n Frieden said the 97% figure comes from a 2009 report, issued when he was CDC director. He is now president and CEO of the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives. <\/p>\n It was an audit of lengthy and detailed conflict of interest forms submitted by all experts who served as CDC advisers in 2007. He said 97% had at least one missing response, which could have meant someone forgot to do something as simple as initial a page. He said it is not the same thing as a conflict of interest. <\/p>\n Frieden also raised alarm about the postponed ACIP meeting, writing in a recent post on LinkedIn, \u201cIt\u2019s certain there will be misleading, inaccurate information claiming ACIP members have conflicts of interest. Here\u2019s the plain truth: ACIP, made up of pediatricians, public health specialists, and parents, is the gold standard for open, transparent recommendations on vaccine safety and effectiveness.\u201d <\/p>\n Without either vaccine committee weighing in on vaccine regulation or recommendations, health-care providers worry there will be delays on vaccines or limits on people\u2019s ability to access them. <\/p>\n \u201cCancelling this meeting means vaccine makers may not have the vital information and time they need to produce and distribute targeted vaccines before the next flu season,\u201d Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said after the cancellation of the FDA flu shot meeting. \u201cIf the FDA meeting is not immediately rescheduled, many lives that could be saved by vaccination will be lost.\u201d <\/strong> <\/p>\n In a February 20 open letter to Kennedy, Acting CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez and Sen. Bill Cassidy,<\/strong> a doctor and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, a coalition of groups called the Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease pushed for the \u201cprompt rescheduling\u201d of the ACIP meeting. <\/p>\n \u201cEach ACIP meeting holds tremendous weight and relevance. Infectious diseases are constantly evolving opponents; vaccines are among the best tools for constantly adapting and responding to the latest public health threats,\u201d the letter said. <\/p>\n \u201cMaking America healthy requires healthy discussion and timely, evidence-based decisions. This meeting should be no different.\u201d <\/p>\n There are several different ways to make flu vaccines, but the most common is to grow the selected candidate viruses in chicken eggs \u2014 a painstaking operation that takes months to finish. <\/p>\n For that reason, selection of the strains that will be included in flu vaccines is carefully orchestrated to be sure that manufacturers can deliver their shots to doctor\u2019s offices and pharmacies in time. <\/p>\n In order for flu vaccines to be sold in the US, they must contain strains that are officially selected by the FDA. <\/p>\n That decision typically comes after a meeting of the World Health Organization\u2019s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, a network of seven collaborating centers and four essential regulatory labs, which are based in the US, UK, Japan, China, Russia and Australia. Both the CDC and FDA are members, and representatives from both agencies participated in the deliberations which got underway this week, WHO said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe US did participate in this meeting,\u201d Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s technical lead for Covid-19, said at a news briefing on Friday. <\/p>\n \u201cI want to be very clear that the US is still contributing. I know that there\u2019s a lot of attention on the US right now, but we are going to continue to emphasize the importance of this global system that\u2019s in place.\u201d <\/p>\n These experts meet twice a year \u2014 in the fall and spring \u2014 to choose strains for countries in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. <\/p>\n On Friday, WHO announced the strains that it thinks will most closely match the viruses that will be making people sick next fall. Those picks would swap out the H3N2 component of this years vaccine, which was only a partial match to the circulating viruses, for a new one. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the match is not perfect, but it is a reasonable match, and is still the best preventative we have against infection with influenza,\u201d said Prof. Ian Barr, deputy director at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, and a member of GISRS, in a new briefing after the strain selection <\/p>\n Kennedy casts doubt on vaccine advisers<\/h2>\n
Flu shot decision in limbo<\/h2>\n