HHS revives childhood vaccine task force: 6 notes

HHS has reinstated the Safer Childhood Vaccines task force, the agency said in an Aug. 14 news release.

Here are six things to know:

1. The task force, created by Congress, was originally disbanded in 1998. 

2. In its new iteration, the panel will include senior leadership from the National Institutes of Health, FDA and CDC. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, will serve as chairman.

3. The panel will aim to improve the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines administered to children. It will work with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines to create regular recommendations focused on the development, promotion and refinement of childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions; and to improve vaccine development, production, distribution and adverse reaction reporting. 

4. HHS will submit its first formal report to Congress within two years, with updates occurring every two years from then on.

5. The announcement comes on the heels of changes to other federal panels. In June, HHS terminated all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appointed eight new members to the CDC panel. In early August, the agency barred physician groups and other experts from the vaccine panel’s working groups. 

6. Vaccine panels are not the only change with respect to vaccines in the past few weeks:

• Vinay Prasad, MD, former head of the FDA’s vaccine and gene therapy division who resigned under political pressure in late July, will return to the agency.
• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled nearly $500 million in federal contracts associated with mRNA vaccine development.
• Vaccine exemptions reached a record high this year. The percentage of children entering kindergarten with an exemption in 2024-25 was 3.6%, up from 3.3% the previous year.
• HHS and CMS eliminated a federal policy that tied hospital reimbursement to staff COVID-19 vaccination reporting.

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