The CDC has posted the agenda for the upcoming meeting of ACIP, including “discussions and possible votes on recommendations for” certain vaccines. CIDRAP has the news.
The vaccines under discussion include COVID-19, hepatitis B, and MMRV vaccines, and the group will also discuss RSV. The meeting is the second of the “newly reconstituted ACIP, which now includes seven members handpicked by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who fired the 17 sitting members of the group in June. Several of the new members of the group share Kennedy's anti-vaccine views.”
At the meeting in June, “the new members announced their intention to revisit recommendations for the hepatitis B and MMRV vaccines, both of which are recommended for young children.”
This new meeting also comes at the same time that CDC director Susan Monarez was fired by the White House for “refusing to meet demands from Kennedy that she accept ACIP recommendations and fire staff.” CDC directors are not legally bound to accept ACIP recommendations, but they normally do. Her “ouster was followed by the resignation of three top CDC officials.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, who heads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, called for the ACIP meeting to be postponed in a statement.
