Individual liberty and choice vs. wider public health became one predictable hinge upon which swung the often-acerbic debates at the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting, which took up – again – the matter of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine scheduling, a day after the panel voted not to vote on such guidance.
Disorganization resulting from last-minute changes to voting questions involving new recommendations for hepatitis B virus vaccines created a moment of déjà vu Dec. 4 when the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 6-3 to once again delay its votes on whether the current recommended birth dose should be pushed back.
“Do not take us backwards,” many doctors and other stakeholders implored the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices ahead of its meeting that starts Dec. 4 with a day-long discussion and votes on whether the current recommended birth dose of the hepatitis B virus vaccine should be delayed.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy continued his last-minute musical chairs ahead of the Dec. 4-5 meeting of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) when he named Kirk Milhoan as the new chair of the panel that advises the CDC on vaccine schedules.
Both the FDA and the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are on the threshold of revising how vaccines are approved and used in the U.S., but whether that opens to a precipice or a new era of stronger evidence and safer use is in the telling of the beholder.
Changes to a U.S. CDC website regarding autism and vaccines has sparked a backlash from numerous scientific and other groups, placing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) in the spotlight once again for appearing to break promises made earlier this year to secure his nomination.
Changes to a U.S. CDC website regarding autism and vaccines has sparked a backlash from numerous scientific and other groups, placing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) in the spotlight once again for appearing to break promises made earlier this year to secure his nomination.
The budget impasse between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill has implications for a wide range of federal government operations, including at the U.S. FDA, which is absorbing another round of layoffs and cannot accept new premarket filings that require user fee submissions.
Even though the U.S. CDC is operating on a skeleton crew due to the partial government shutdown, it is updating its immunization schedules to adopt the COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccine recommendations the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made at its September meeting.
Even though the U.S. CDC is operating on a skeleton crew due to the partial government shutdown, it is updating its immunization schedules to adopt the COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccine recommendations the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made at its September meeting.