(Reuters) -A revamped U.S. CDC vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet on September 18, and could vote on shots for hepatitis B, measles-mumps-rubella-varicella and respiratory syncytial virus, according to the federal register. The meeting announcement comes after a major upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, where its director Susan […]
Health
Revamped CDC vaccine panel to meet on September 18
Audio By Carbonatix
(Reuters) -A revamped U.S. CDC vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet on September 18, and could vote on shots for hepatitis B, measles-mumps-rubella-varicella and respiratory syncytial virus, according to the federal register.
The meeting announcement comes after a major upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, where its director Susan Monarez was fired after resisting changes to vaccine policy that were advanced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Three top officials at the health agency also resigned in the wake of the firing, citing anti-vaccine policies pushed by Kennedy, including firing of the entire expert vaccine advisory panel — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — in June, and replacing them with like-minded anti-vaccine activists and other hand-picked advisers.
The newly revamped seven-member vaccine panel had met in June and voted to recommend seasonal influenza shots free from mercury-based preservative thimerosal.
The head of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has called for the delay of the meeting of vaccine advisers this month after chaos erupted at the CDC.
Kennedy has made sweeping changes to the nation’s vaccine policies, including the withdrawal of federal recommendations for COVID-19 shots for pregnant women and healthy children.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)