WASHINGTON — Federal vaccine advisers have been selected before Secretary of Health Robert F. kennedy jr They plan to vote to end vaccination of all newborns against hepatitis B and examine whether childhood immunization schedule vaccines are behind the rise in cases of allergies and autoimmune disorders.
Members meeting Thursday and Friday are taking a broad look at the vaccines recommended for children, said Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and coronavirus vaccination critic who recently served as chair of the influential Vaccine Committee. Discussions over the timing and components of the vaccine could signal big changes in how children are vaccinated in the United States, marking the latest flashpoint in an accelerating reshaping of immunization policy under the Kennedy health administration.
For decades, the immunization schedule for children and adolescents has required vaccines to be given at specific milestones. But Kennedy, the founder of an anti-vaccine group, has long linked the rise of chronic diseases, autism and food allergies in the United States to what he calls an “explosive vaccination schedule,” claims that have been refuted by medical associations and extensive research into vaccine safety.
Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are preparing to make the most significant change to the childhood vaccine schedule since Kennedy purged the committee and replaced members with experts who have largely criticized public health vaccination practices.
The new members plan to vote on Thursday to rescind the recommendation that all children be given one dose of… Hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth. Instead, the committee is considering postponing that first dose for a period of time that is “still being finalized,” Milhoan said.
Vaccine advisers postponed a vote on hepatitis B vaccine recommendations at their meeting in September after a row. The birth dose is credited with a 99 percent reduction in infections in children and teens since a 1991 recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to a 2023 study in the Official Journal of the U.S. Surgeon General.
Critics of the birth shot, including Kennedy, say it is not necessary to vaccinate all babies against the virus when the vast majority of them are not at risk of infection. ACIP makes recommendations to the CDC Director on how approved vaccines should be used. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention directors have always embraced the committee’s recommendations, which require insurance companies to pay for vaccines, and have traditionally directed pediatricians and medical organizations.
The committee also plans to initiate public discussions on its efforts to review the childhood immunization schedule and the cumulative health effects of the dozens of vaccines children receive. “We’re looking at what might be causing some of the long-term changes that we’re seeing in the population data in children, specifically things like asthma, eczema and other autoimmune diseases,” Milhoan said in an interview yesterday.
“What we are trying to do is find out if there are factors inside the vaccines,” he said, such as their ingredients or unwanted materials that contaminate them during manufacturing.
Milhoan said the committee is focusing on the use of aluminum as an adjuvant, an ingredient added to vaccines to help the body produce an immune response strong enough to protect a person from disease. Aluminum salts are found in more than a dozen commonly recommended vaccines, including hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria and tetanus vaccines, Haemophilus influenzae type b, human papillomavirus, meningococcal B, and pneumococcal vaccines.
the Auxiliary materials They are essential because without them, the vaccine may not be able to stimulate sufficient immune responses. Aluminum salts have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years, according to the CDC. Vaccines containing aluminum adjuvants have rarely been associated with severe local reactions, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which tests vaccines containing adjuvants extensively in clinical trials before authorizing them.
The agency notes that the most common source of aluminum exposure is food and drinking water. Public health experts and doctors have sounded the alarm that the committee is moving toward recommending the use of vaccines that do not contain only aluminum adjuvants, a move that health and industry experts say would be costly and difficult on a practical level and could lead to vaccines being withdrawn from the market.
Milhone said the committee is not calling for aluminum to be removed from vaccines. “We don’t say that at all,” he added. “We’re just starting to have the discussion.”
The FDA is generally responsible for directing manufacturers to remove ingredients from vaccines. Some senior FDA officials believe it would be pointless to remove aluminum adjuvants from vaccines and cannot be done in any practical time frame, according to a senior federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank.
Vaccine industry officials have said removing aluminum adjuvants from vaccines would cost billions of dollars, and finding a replacement would take years, according to people working in the drug industry who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid publicly antagonizing the administration. The costs and technical complexities of doing so are enormous, one person said.
ACIP’s two-day meeting this week comes on the heels of severe disruptions to the federal vaccination system. The committee submitted Severe criticism By public health groups that accused the new members of corrupting and distorting science to promote an agenda to undermine vaccines.
Sean O’Leary, Chairman of the Infectious Diseases Committee American Academy of PediatricsACIP’s newly reformulated revisions to the childhood immunization schedule should not be trusted, he said. “Any change they make could be devastating to children’s health and public health in general,” O’Leary said at a news conference.
The vaccine panel “remains committed to making evidence-based decisions and will carefully consider all data before making any recommendations,” Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that Melhone will serve as chief because his predecessor, Martin Kulldorff, a Swedish biostatistician and a leading critic of the public health response to Covid, will join the health agency in a staff position. Milhoin belongs to an organization that has promoted ivermectin as a treatment for the coronavirus even though trials found it to be ineffective, and in March, he called for a halt to mRNA vaccines.
Susan Monarrez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she was fired in August after refusing to blindly agree to the committee’s rewritten recommendations, and several senior CDC officials resigned in protest.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its website to contradict its long-standing guidance that vaccines do not cause autism.
Kennedy said the New York Times That he personally led the change. On Friday, Vinay Prasad, the country’s top vaccine regulator, announced plans to impose a tougher approach to approving vaccines, including the annual flu shot, citing his team’s conclusion — without detailing the underlying evidence — that coronavirus vaccines contributed to the deaths of at least 10 children.
Except for the vote on the hepatitis B vaccine, federal vaccine advisers have scheduled no other votes on the childhood vaccine schedule this week. According to the draft agenda, there are no presentations on vaccine effectiveness, access, equity or the practical consequences of changing established timelines, which were always included before the committee composition was changed.
Milhone said the benefits of vaccines are well known and widely discussed. “Not enough attention is being paid to the risks,” he said.
Written by Lina H. Sun