Kennedy-appointed CDC vaccine panel says it will scrutinize the childhood vaccine schedule

A federal consultative committee of vaccines plans to examine the vaccination calendar on childhood and to examine the vaccines that have been approved for decades, fueling the concerns that the panel may consider changes in long -standing vaccinations recommendations.

On Wednesday, the new advisory committee on vaccination practices convened for the first time. Earlier this month, the Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissed the 17 members of the panel and appointed eight of his own, many of whom expressed skepticism as to the value and security of vaccines. (A member, Dr. Michael Ross, has since withdrawn from the committee, said Senator Bill Cassidy on Wednesday.

The independent panel of experts makes recommendations to centers for Disease Control and Prevention on which should obtain certain vaccines, which can in turn influence if the vaccines are covered by insurance.

The new chairman of the committee, Martin Kulldorff – a biostatistics that criticized the locking of the pandemic era and said that he had been dismissed from Harvard for refusing to obtain a cocovid vaccination – took a combative tone at the start of the meeting.

“Some media have been very severe for the new members of this committee, producing false accusations and making concerted efforts to put scientists in a pro- or anti-vaccine box,” said Kulldorff. “Such labels undermine a critical scientific investigation, and it feeds the flames of vaccination hesitation more.”

Kulldorff also said that he had opposed the decision of the federal health agencies to temporarily suspend the deployment of the cocoded vaccine of Johnson & Johnson due to rare blood clots in young women.

“There was a shortage of vaccines and people were dying, so I think a break from the J & J vaccine was inappropriate,” Kulldorff said. “So, in this case, I was, I suppose, the most pro-Vaccin person among the scientists of vaccines in this country. It is therefore a little ridiculous that the media say that I am anti-vaccine.”

He also announced the creation of two new working groups, the subdivisions of the independent panel which Review vaccine data and develop recommendation options to be presented to ACIP meetings.

One will examine the cumulative effect of recommended infant vaccines, including the potential interaction effects between shots. Another will re -evaluate vaccines that have not been examined for over seven years, said Kulldorff, including hepatitis B vaccines and a combined vaccine that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.

“It was supposed to be a regular practice of the ACIP, but it was not done in depth and systematic,” he said at the meeting.

Kennedy frequently criticized the vaccination calendar on childhood, including the fact that children are vaccinated against many more diseases compared to decades ago.

“When I was a child, I had three vaccines,” Kennedy said on Tuesday during a conference hearing. “Today, they get 69 to 92 vaccines between the design and when they are 18 years old.”

However, many vaccine experts argue that today’s shots contain fewer antigens – the key components of vaccines that form the immune system to recognize the germ – compared to generations, and are therefore less trying on the immune system.

By announcing on Wednesday the new ACIPS working groups, Kulldorff questioned some of the committee’s recommendations, in particular that the vaccines to hepatitis B should be given to the newborns and that it is acceptable to the children of 1 child to receive a A shooting that combines the measles vaccine and the chickenpox or chickenpox vaccine.

“Unless the mother is positive of hepatitis B, an argument could be advanced to delay the vaccine for this infection, which is mainly distributed by sexual activity and intravenous drug use,” he said.

The vaccine combined with measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) were approved in 2005 and the CDC initially recommended that it be given to children at 12-15 months and again at ages from 4 to 6 years old. However, the CDC changed its guides in 2009 after the first dose was linked to an increased risk of February plans – convulsions caused by a temperature spice – for each risk of 2,300 for children.

Now the CDC recommends that young children be vaccinated with the ROR vaccine and the chickenpox vaccine for their first dose, and the combined photo be used for the second dose. However, the overall risk of febrile crises is very low for both options, according to the agency.

Kulldorff questioned a previous recommendation of the AIPI according to which, for their first dose, children can obtain the combined photo or separate the chickenpox vaccines and MMR.

He also declared that the working group “could also examine new research concerning the optimal moment of the ROR vaccine to resolve religious objections that some parents have concerning the ROR vaccine used here in the United States. They could also watch other MMR vaccines, such as the one used in Japan.”

Over the next two days, the panel should discuss updated data on Anthrax, Chikungunya, Covid and MMRV vaccines and vote on RSV and flu vaccines.

Recent discussions of the covid working group presented Wednesday have determined that the updated covored vaccines are suitable for pregnant women, babies aged 6 to 23 months and children and adults aged 2 to 64 who are at high risk of exposure to Covid. Immunode -depressed people over 6 months old and the elderly aged 65 and over are expected to obtain two doses of the updated shooting, according to discussions of the working group.

The group also determined that healthy children and adults could speak with their doctors about obtaining a updated cocovid vaccine. In May, Kennedy announced that the CDC no longer recommended the vaccine for this group or pregnant women.

In another presentation for Wednesday afternoon, a working group determined that the CDC should recommend Clesrovimab, an injection of antibodies which can prevent the RSV, for all infants of less than 8 months born or entering their first season of VRS. The group determined that the drug was effective in preventing severe RSV in young infants and had a favorable security profile. However, he also noted that too few infants were included in the clinical trial to grasp rare adverse events.

The drug, from Merck, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month. A similar medication, Norsevimab, is already approved and recommended for these infants.

On Thursday, Lyn Redwood, an anti -Vaccin activist, is expected to make a presentation on Thimeralal, a mercury -based curator withdrawn from all infant vaccines – with the exception of certain flu vaccines – in 2001. The Redwood is the emeritus president of the defense of children’s health, the non -profit anti -vaccine group founded by Kennedy. She also co -founded Safeminds, a group that financed the research he hoped to show that Thimérosal in vaccines was linked to autism. There is no proof of such a link.

The CDC vaccine advisory committee is expected to vote on the question of whether Thimérosal should remain in certain flu vaccines.

The presentation of Redwood says that “the elimination of a known neurotoxin of the injection into our most vulnerable populations is a good point to start again by the health of America.” But nothing proves that the low doses of Thimérosal in the influenza vaccines are harmful, beyond certain redness or swelling on the injection site. The preservative consists of ethylmercure, which is much less likely to accumulate in the body than the mercury found in the environment. And most of the scientific evidence has shown that low doses in vaccines do not harm the nervous system.