CDC Panel to Review Childhood Vaccines: What’s at Stake

Update: after the publication of this story, An updated agenda project for the ACIP meeting was published. According to the calendar, the Committee will no longer examine the RSV vaccine, but it will vote on the other three plans described in this story: COVID-19, hepatitis B and MMRV.

Next week, the panel of better advisers who recommend how vaccines are used in the United States will meet to review the JABs that protect against COVID-19, hepatitis B and other diseases. The meeting – The second of the Committee since the Secretary of the United States of Health and Anti -Vaccin Defender, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, suddenly dismissed all of his 17 previous members and welcomed 7 news – has raised eyebrows among specialists in public health, since the security and efficiency of some of the vaccines have been well established for years.

“I am very worried, given the signaling of the members of this new reconstructed and selected by hand [committee] That they will select objectives for an additional restriction, ”explains Andrew Pavia, doctor of the Society for Infectious Diseases, a medical association based in Arlington, Virginia. During their last meeting, the advisers – several of which have publicly expressed anti -vaccine views – voted to end the use of the preservation of thimerals in influenced vaccines, despite the evidence that it is in complete safety in doses.

On the support of scientific journalism

If you appreciate this article, plan to support our award -winning journalism by subscription. By buying a subscription, you help to ensure the future of striking stories about discoveries and ideas that shape our world today.

We do not know exactly what the Consultative Committee for Vaccination Practices (ACIP) will vote at next week’s meeting, which will be held on September 18 and 19, because the agenda lack of details, which increases the concern of researchers. “It is very unusual for the ACIP to put things on the agenda with a notice of one month and not to discuss who will present data, what data will be examined and what questions, if necessary, could arise for a vote,” explains Pavia.

The American Department of Health and Social Services, led by Kennedy and has the authority over the Aipic, did not respond to Nature’S Request for comments.

Nature Spealed to public health specialists in discussion vaccines, on which the committee could vote and the data it should be considered.

COVID-9 examination

Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved COVVI-19 up-to-date vaccines, but that imposed limitations that can get the blows. While vaccines were previously authorized for all the aged 6 months and more in the United States, they are now only approved for people over the age of 65, as well as health problems with high risk of serious illness.

The FDA is responsible for the authorization of new vaccines, while the ACIP, supervised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), advises who should receive them. These recommendations, which are generally adopted by the CDC as an official policy, help inform the vaccines covered by health insurance.

“I guess the AIPI could end up reflecting what the FDA recommended” for COVVI-19 photos, explains Adam Ratner, pediatrician of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization based in Itasca, Illinois.

In a statement that followed the FDA’s decision on August 27, the president of the AAP, Susan Kressly, described this decision “deeply disturbing”, in particular for children, whose Kennedy security has focused on the issue of vaccines. The previous week, the AAP has published its own recommendation that all children of 6 months and more should be vaccinated and, in particular, children aged 6 to 23 months which are at high risk of severe COVID-19.

According to data from the season of pace and flu 2022-23, COVVI-19-based vaccines based on mRNA were between 46% and 70% to prevent emergencies related to COVID-19 for children aged 6 months up to 5 years in a window of 2 months after the second or third dose. (Vaccines against flu, which are also updated seasonally, are generally effective from 40 to 60%.) And such shots have caused any safety problems in the same age group.

However, The Washington Post reports that Trump health officials could link COVVI-19 vaccines with 25 pediatric deaths reported to a database on vaccine safety at next week’s meeting. Anyone can submit reports to the database, but complaints must be studied to confirm a link.

Are hepatitis B no longer for newborns?

Anti-Vaccin defenders asked whether a hepatitis B vaccine should be given to newborns-current practice in the United States. Instead, they suggest that the blows are only administered to people with certain high -risk behaviors, including the consumption of unprotected sex and drugs, says Pavia. This is a problem, he adds, because “the majority of hepatitis B in the world is transmitted from mother to infant”.

Hepatitis B is a liver disease caused by a virus that spreads by contact with infected blood and other body fluids. According to the AAP, babies infected with hepatitis B during their first year of life have 90% chance of developing chronic disease, and a quarter of people with chronic hepatitis B die.

Since the United States began to recommend hepatitis B vaccines for infants in the 1990s, cases have dropped considerably (see “generational decline in hepatitis B”). The administration “earlier is always better with an incurable virus”, explains Peter Chin-Hong, doctor of infectious disease at the University of California in San Francisco.

Some people think that the ACIP panel will recommented hepatitis B vaccines for infants, based on screening for people pregnant for disease – and only vaccinating infants from those who test positive. But “there can be false negatives,” said Ratner. And “there can be people who are detected, then the result is not effectively communicated”, so the action is not taken. Giving the vaccine at birth is therefore the most robust protection, he adds. Studies have demonstrated the safety of newborns in vaccination for hepatitis B.

Stricter advice for measles blows?

In 2008, the American vaccine safety system identified an increased risk of crisis induced by fever in children between one and two years old who received the measles vaccine, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) (chickenpox is commonly known as Pille Pille). This observation led the CDC to recommend that the children of this age group receive separate plans for their first dose – one for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) followed by a chickenpox – unless a parent has expressed a preference for the unique MMRV fire. For the second dose, generally given to children aged 4 to 6, the agency recommended the combination of the JAB MMRV because there were no security problems for this age group.

At the last meeting of the AIPI, President Martin Kulldorff presented the 2008 data and proposed that the MMRV vaccine is never administered to children under the age of four. This complies with what the CDC already recommends, so it is possible that Kulldorff simply wants to strengthen the language of advice. However, the strongly opposing opposition to the JAB MMRV could have its drawbacks: the combination allows people to more easily comply with vaccination recommendations because it requires fewer visits to a clinic, known as Chin-Hong.

RSV plans for pregnant people

The syncytial respiratory virus (RSV) is a major cause of hospitalization in babies in the United States. There are two ways to protect infants from the disease, which ignites the smallest respiratory paths from the lungs. Babies can receive a monoclonal antibody during their first eight months, or a pregnant person can obtain an RSV vaccine, which in turn protects their infant (see “Born with RSV Protection”).

At the last meeting of the AIPI, the members of the committee voted to recommend a monoclonal antibody manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Merck for babies less than eight months unprotected against the RSV by vaccination during gestation. It is not clear to what the committee will discuss the RSV this time, but a possible target is the vaccination of pregnant people. Currently, the CDC recommends receiving a dose of an RSV vaccine between 32 and 36 weeks of gestation. In a clinical shooting trial, which is manufactured by the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, there were a little more premature births in the vaccination group than in the placebo group, but the increase was not statistically significant.

“If we had a perfect system where each child obtained the preparation of monoclonal antibodies, you may not need maternal vaccinations,” explains Ratner. “But in the real world, this does not always happen and there can be obstacles” for babies to access preventive treatment, as the hospital not offering it after birth.

This article is reproduced with permission and was first publication September 12, 2025.