While the discussions and votes at the past two meetings of the U.S. CDC Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) have generated a lot of controversy and resulted in some states and medical groups issuing their own vaccine schedules, the truth is that the newly reconstituted committee’s recommendations to date are still in line with, or more generous in some instances than, global norms.
Despite down-to-the-wire negotiations, the odds are that parts of the U.S. government will shut down at midnight Sept. 30, as Senate Democrats refused to support a seven-week, clean continuing resolution already passed by the House to keep the government funded while Congress hammers out fiscal 2026 spending bills.
The second day’s meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) took up guidelines related to COVID-19 vaccines, of which an outspoken skeptic is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy – who in June fired all 17 members of ACIP and replaced them with names more to his liking.
The second day’s meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) took up guidelines related to COVID-19 vaccines, of which an outspoken skeptic is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy – who in June fired all 17 members of ACIP and replaced them with names more to his liking.
Despite some expectations that the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) would dramatically change the childhood vaccine schedule for hepatitis B, the committee is poised to vote Sept. 19 on a much smaller change that would move the current birth dose to 1 month for infants born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and a few other medical professional groups were no-shows at the Sept. 18 meeting of the U.S. CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. The absence of the liaison groups was noted, especially that of the AAP. In opening the two-day meeting, ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff said he lamented that the AAP has ended its association with the committee.
For enquiring minds that want to know, Susan Monarez laid out the details Sept. 17 of how she was fired as CDC director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The Sept. 17 U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the CDC is throwing even more shade on the upcoming meeting of the agency’s reconstituted Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is expected to recommend changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Just three days before the U.S. CDC’s reconstituted Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to discuss and possibly vote on the COVID-19, hepatitis B and MMRV vaccines, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy added five new members to the panel.
Speaking at a Sept. 9 media briefing on the newly released Make America Healthy Again Strategy, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy confirmed what could be the worst fears of many vaccine experts.
