New CDC vaccine panel reviewing shot recommendations after RFK Jr.'s overhaul

CDC panel to discuss updated shot schedule

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisers have gathered for the second and final day for a meeting that could bring new recommendations for some common shots.

ATLANTA - Thursday is the second and final day of meetings for an advisory panel at the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention discussing its recommendations for what vaccines Americans should get and when. This is the first time the committee has met since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all the previous members earlier this month.

The new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the CDC is working on recommendations for multiple vaccinations.

What we know:

The committee helps determine who should be vaccinated against what and when. Their decisions can impact insurance coverage and the availability of vaccinations.

"As the committee, we have to make recommendations that are evidence-based," committee chairman Martin Kulldorff said.

Dig deeper:

While opening the first meeting on Wednesday, Kuldorff announced that he is appointing a group to evaluate children's vaccine schedules. The group will also examine how shots for hepatitis B and one that combines chickenpox protection with Measles, Mumps, and Rubella are administered.

There are questions about what the panel will say about flu shots. Typically, the panel discusses the guidance for Americans six months and older to get a flu shot ahead of the upcoming flu season. The panel is set to discuss a preservative in the shots some have falsely claimed is tied to autism. 

A view of the sign of Center for Disease Control headquarters is seen in Atlanta, on August 06, 2022. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The panel is also set to vote on a new vaccine that protects against RSV. A current antibody has proved to be up to 76% effective against emergency room visits for infants over the last year. The committee delayed voting on another company's newly approved antibody shot until Thursday.

The other side:

Outside the building, protesters gathered to speak out against the decisions made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"You cannot make stuff up. Vaccines have been proven to be effective. This is just unconscionable what is happening to public health and the denigration of science and evidence-based approaches," one protester said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics announced on Wednesday that it would continue publishing its own vaccine schedule for children but would do so independently of the committee, calling it "no longer a credible process."

Senate committee interviews Trump's CDC Director nominee

Several committee members asked the nominee if she'd stand up to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy if she disagreed with him.

Big picture view:

Meanwhile, a confirmation hearing is underway for President Donald Trump's pick to run the CDC. Susan Monarez, the former director of a federal biomedical research agency and a respected scientist, would be the first nonphysician to lead the CDC in decades.

"I have not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism. I think vaccines save lives," Monarez told senators during the first day of her confirmation hearing.

If Monarez is confirmed, it would end a stretch of confusion at the Atlanta-based CDC, where, for months, it wasn’t clear who was running the agency. The acting director’s role was filled in part by Matthew Buzzelli, the CDC’s chief of staff, who is a lawyer and political appointee with no medical experience.