HHS Reinstates Federal Panel to Oversee Children's Vaccines
The task force, originally created by Congress in 1986 and disbanded in 1998, was reinstated under by ACIP, recently reconstituted by HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
HHS has reinstated a federal panel to “oversee the safety and quality of children’s vaccines.” CIDRAP has the news.
The Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines will work alongside the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines to make recommendations “aimed at developing, promoting, and refining childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less severe adverse reactions than current vaccines.” The task force was originally created “by Congress under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, but was disbanded in 1998. HHS said the group, which will also include representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration, will send its first report to Congress within 2 years.”
The newly reconstituted ACIP held a meeting in June with new members handpicked by HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and it announced “the formation of a new working group that would look at the cumulative effects of vaccines on the CDC's recommended schedule for children and adolescents.” Anti-vaccine groups have “long questioned the safety of routine childhood vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine. They've also promoted the idea that US children get too many vaccines too soon and that the cumulative effects have not been properly studied.”
