US vaccine advisers abandon broad recommendation for COVID shots

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By Michael Erman, Mariam Sunny and Julie Steenhuysen

ATLANTA (Reuters) -A panel of U.S. vaccine advisers named by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday abandoned years of broad support for the COVID-19 shot and recommended that the vaccines be made available for all ages based on shared clinical decision-making with a physician.

Vaccines recommended by the committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), under shared clinical decision-making are typically covered by U.S. health insurance programs.

The vote was put forward as the panel reconvened for a second day of meetings that have highlighted deep divisions over the future of the U.S. immunization schedules under Kennedy, who has long promoted claims about vaccine harms that run contrary to scientific evidence.

The decision by Kennedy’s hand-picked vaccine advisory panel followed lengthy presentations, many of which focused on matters of basic science typically taken up by the Food and Drug Administration before approving the shots.

PANEL ALSO VOTED TO RESTRICT MMRV VACCINE USE

They followed the panel’s Thursday vote recommending against giving the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella shot to children under four. On Friday, the panel re-voted to align the U.S. government’s childhood vaccine program with their recommendations.

The panel, reconstituted this year by Kennedy, includes several members who have previously raised concerns about routine vaccines or advocated against COVID shots. Five of the members began their terms on Monday.

Members of the COVID vaccine working group raised several potential safety issues that they believe warranted more study.

Pfizer, which partners with Germany’s BioNTech; Moderna; and Sanofi, which partners with Novavax, all defended the safety and effectiveness of their vaccines.

The CDC presented data suggesting COVID-19 vaccination provided additional protection against emergency department visits in children and adults, and hospitalizations and critical illness in adults 65 and older. It said U.S. hospitalization rates from COVID have been highest for adults 65 and older and infants under 6 months.

(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru, Mariam Sunny and Michael Erman; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Caroline Humer and Nick Zieminski)