ACIP to review COVID, MMR and RSV vaccines

In mid-September, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will discuss — and potentially vote on — vaccines for COVID-19, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and respiratory syncytial virus. 

According to an ACIP agenda posted Aug. 29, the meeting will also provide updates on the committee’s working groups. In late July, the CDC removed physician groups and public health and infectious disease experts from ACIP working groups, affecting the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 

In June, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 standing committee members and replaced them with eight new members. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, said in July that they were investigating the committee’s overhaul. 

The upcoming ACIP meeting is set for Sept. 18 and 19. Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, called for the meeting to be indefinitely postponed. 

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting,” Dr. Cassidy, who chairs the Senate HELP Committee, said in an Aug. 28 statement. “These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”

The post ACIP to review COVID, MMR and RSV vaccines appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.