RFK JR vaccine panel to review long -approved Jabs for children

New members of the US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. from vaccine advisers will review long-approved immunization schedules for children and teens.

The seven members of the Consultative Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time on Wednesday, weeks after Kennedy canceled all 17 of his predecessors.

Acip recommends who should be vaccinated and when in US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Prior to the meeting, public health experts and politicians expressed concerns about the qualification of new members – several of which are critics of vaccines.

Health Secretary ignited the unrest when he removed all 17 ACIP members on June 9And then eight new members to serve the panel – including one who dropped out hours before the first meeting.

The Wednesday meeting began with the new chairman Dr. Martin Kuldorf, who tells the group that he was fired from his work as a professor at Harvard University as he refused to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. Kulldorff has also announced that the panel will release new working groups to look at the vaccination schedules against children and vaccines that have been approved seven or more years ago.

He said it would be examined if it was “reasonable” to give hepatitis B vaccines to newborns, a shot, proven safe and effective to prevent the infection that causes liver cancer.

Measles vaccines will also be reviewed, he said.

A study of vaccines licensed seven or more years ago raises concerns, as it suggests that the process of approving them was insufficient, Bill Hanage, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health of Khan, said.

“I can’t think of any rational reason you would look at this and you think that’s the case,” he said.

Initially, the panel was intended to vote on recommendations for shots against RSV, a respiratory virus that could be dangerous to babies, but it was delayed.

On Thursday, the group is planned to hear a presentation on the use of Thimerosal in vaccines given by Lynn Redwood, a former leader of the children’s health protection, the anti-vaxine that Kennedy takes place.

The Redwood is hired by CDC to work at its vaccine safety service, according to BBC News CBS News US partner.

The group’s decision to discuss Thimerosal, a mercury preservative that has not been used in most vaccines for decades, is disturbing, said Dr. Hanage.

In the past, he said, ACIP members have a wide range of vaccine expertise and will look at the vaccine recommendations for months.

This time, Kennedy chose for the panel “People who are like him -people in the past who have shown anti -vaxine biases,” said Dr. Pa Paul Office, a former ACIP member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.

One of the new members of ACIP was Michael Ross, but he retired this week before reviewing the financial participation of members, said the Ministry of Health and Human Services.

The choice of Kennedy’s panel also provoked criticism from the Republican senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor who was skeptical to vote to confirm Kennedy as a health secretary for his vaccine positions.

In a Cassidy post, the panel should not proceed with its meeting due to the small size of the group and the lack of a CDC director to approve their recommendations.

“Although the ACIP appointments have scientific powers, many of them have no considerable experience in learning microbiology, epidemiology or immunology,” he writes.

“More special, some lack experience in learning new technologies such as MRNA vaccines and can even have pre -created biases to them.”