CDC panel votes to limit measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccines for children
A CDC advisory panel voted on Thursday to limit the availability of a combined shooting for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, the virus that causes chickenpox for children.
The panel also delayed a vote on hepatitis B of the newborn until Friday.
The advisory committee of 12 people on vaccination practices was chosen by the Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., who expressed his skepticism as to the effectiveness of vaccines.
The panel voted 8-3 with abstention to recommend against giving the mmrv vaccine to children before the age of 4 on possible crisis problems. Instead, the panel said that MMR and chickenpox shots must be given separately.
Doctors say that parents prefer combined shooting to limit the number of injections their child receives.
Voting can allow health insurers to no longer cover the MMRV vaccine for children under the age of four.
“I urge this committee not to change the recommendations if they really want to give power to parents to decide what is best for their child,” said Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians who acts as a connection with the Committee.
The recommendations must be examined and approved by the CDC director to become official advice, but CDC directors have almost always accepted the recommendations of the panel. Former CDC director Susan Monarez was dismissed last month after having told Kennedy Jr. that she would not blindly accept the recommendations of the panel.
“He said that the infant vaccine calendar will change from September and that I had to be on board,” she told a senatorial committee on Wednesday.
The acting director of the CDC, Jim O’Neill, who was installed by Kennedy, should accept the recommendations of the panel.
Dr. Debra Houry, former head doctor of the CDC, told Congress on Wednesday that the United States “is on the right track to see a drastic increase in avoidable diseases and healthcares” following the actions of Kennedy Jr.
