US Senator Cassidy urges delay of US vaccine meeting

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(Reuters) -The head of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions called for the delay of a meeting of vaccine advisers scheduled for Wednesday after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members this month.

Kennedy, who has a long history of questioning the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence, has named eight new members, including several who have advocated against vaccines, to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The panel is meant to advise the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy.

“Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations,” Senate health committee chair Bill Cassidy said in a post on X.

Cassidy, a Republican doctor from Louisiana who had expressed wariness about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views before clearing the path for him to become the nation’s top health official, said that many of the new panelists do not have significant relevant experience.

“In particular, some lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them,” he said.

He said the meeting should be delayed until the committee “is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation.”

The current meeting is scheduled for June 25 and 26. CNN reported earlier on Monday that a former leader of anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense is set to make a presentation at the meeting on flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal.

A Department of Health and Human Services representative was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sonali Paul)