Vaccines could get more expensive and harder to access after RFK Jr. purged a CDC panel
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shook up a key federal vaccine advisory committee this week, ousting its sitting 17 members Monday and naming eight new individuals Wednesday, including ones known for anti-vaccine views and for spreading misinformation.
The changes could potentially impact vaccine cost and availability in California and the uncertainty is making families anxious, experts say.
'I've been having several conversations every day with families who are trying to get their children vaccinated early because parents are worried that these vaccines will not be available for their children in the near future,' said Eric Ball, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics in California.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice provides vaccine recommendations to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The group's guidance doesn't just have medical implications; it also has financial consequences for people seeking vaccinations.
'Under the Affordable Care Act, if ACIP recommends a vaccine, insurance companies have to cover it,' said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC College of the Law San Francisco, who specializes in vaccine-related law and policies. The federally funded Vaccines for Children program also covers recommended vaccines for uninsured and underinsured children, Reiss said.
Potentially, the new ACIP members could alter recommendations, which would in turn affect coverage for vaccines. Nothing is certain, however: 'We don't know how this (newly) constituted committee will vote,' Reiss said. The advisory committee is scheduled to meet on June 25 to review scientific data and vote on vaccine recommendations.
If problems do arise around vaccine access, there could be additional issues for California's immunization mandates for schools. 'How can you mandate a vaccine if people can't access it?' Reiss said.
The sweeping changes to ACIP, established in 1964, are unprecedented, experts say.
'I can't even think of a time when an individual member has been removed from the committee,' said Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford and one of the 17 experts removed from the vaccine advisory committee this week.
'We are really in uncharted territory here, in terms of the membership changing so radically and so quickly,' Maldonado said.
Maldonado explained that the existing process for evaluating vaccine safety and effectiveness is 'incredibly rigorous,' with numerous safety checkpoints.
'Vaccines are foundational to public health,' Maldonado said. 'They save millions of lives.'
Reiss added that the United States has a system that allows people who experience problems due to a CDC-recommended vaccine to seek compensation from the government. This limits the liability of vaccine companies. If new advisory committee members remove current vaccine recommendations, Reiss said she is concerned 'that some manufacturers might leave the vaccine market.'
In an editorial published Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Secretary Kennedy wrote that the 17 ACIP members were 'retired' because 'the committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest.'
Experts roundly disagreed with the claims and numerous medical organizations quickly spoke out. 'That's very telling,' said Catherine Flores, executive director of the California Immunization Coalition, a statewide nonprofit advocacy and education organization around immunizations.
While past ACIP vaccine experts were thoroughly vetted, details about the process for the newly announced group aren't clear, Flores said. Flores is concerned some committee members may lack the previous ACIP members' level of expertise about vaccines.
'We are very concerned about what's next,' Flores said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
17 minutes ago
FDA expands approval of Moderna's RSV vaccine to some adults under age 60
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded its approval of Moderna's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine on Thursday to include adults under the age of 60 at increased risk of the disease. Previously, the vaccine, known as mRESVIA, had been licensed for use for those aged 60 and older. Approval for mRESVIA came after Moderna conducted a late-stage clinical trial showing the vaccine helped boost immune responses in younger adults. More than one-third of adults between ages 18 and 59 have at least one underlying condition that puts them at increased risk of RSV, according to Moderna. "RSV poses a serious health risk to adults with certain chronic conditions, and today's approval marks an important step forward in our ability to protect additional populations from severe illness from RSV," Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in a press release. "We appreciate the FDA's review and thank all the participants in our clinical trial as well as the Moderna team for their dedication to protecting people against RSV." Although the FDA approves vaccines and may expand approvals for certain age groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sets recommendations regarding who should get vaccines and when. Currently, the CDC recommends RSV vaccination only for those aged 75 and older and for those aged 60 and over at increased risk. The CDC's independent vaccine advisory committee will need to vote to recommend that the new age group be eligible for the shot, followed by a final recommendation from the director of the CDC. Earlier this week, Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the committee and replaced them with eight new members. It remains unclear how the new members of the panel will decide to approach recommendations for the RSV vaccine. As of Friday, the CDC director role remains vacant and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been making final recommendations. In an April meeting, the prior advisory committee voted to recommend RSV vaccination for those aged 50 to 59 with increased risk of disease, but Kennedy did not adopt the recommendations. meeting scheduled to be held between June 25 and June 27 Moderna's RSV vaccine is based on mRNA technology, which some of the new members have expressed skepticism about, especially in relation to COVID-19 vaccines. Despite availability, RSV vaccination has been lagging. As of April 26, the latest date for which CDC data is available, an estimated 47.5% of adults aged 75 and older and 38.1% of adults aged 60 to 74 with a high-risk condition reported ever having received an RSV vaccine.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
FDA expands approval of Moderna's RSV vaccine to some adults under age 60
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded its approval of Moderna's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine on Thursday to include adults under the age of 60 at increased risk of the disease. Previously, the vaccine, known as mRESVIA, had been licensed for use for those aged 60 and older. Approval for mRESVIA came after Moderna conducted a late-stage clinical trial showing the vaccine helped boost immune responses in younger adults. MORE: Despite 'game-changing' new RSV shots, uptake lagged among infants, adults: Experts More than one-third of adults between ages 18 and 59 have at least one underlying condition that puts them at increased risk of RSV, according to Moderna. "RSV poses a serious health risk to adults with certain chronic conditions, and today's approval marks an important step forward in our ability to protect additional populations from severe illness from RSV," Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in a press release. "We appreciate the FDA's review and thank all the participants in our clinical trial as well as the Moderna team for their dedication to protecting people against RSV." Although the FDA approves vaccines and may expand approvals for certain age groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sets recommendations regarding who should get vaccines and when. Currently, the CDC recommends RSV vaccination only for those aged 75 and older and for those aged 60 and over at increased risk. The CDC's independent vaccine advisory committee will need to vote to recommend that the new age group be eligible for the shot, followed by a final recommendation from the director of the CDC. Earlier this week, Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the committee and replaced them with eight new members. It remains unclear how the new members of the panel will decide to approach recommendations for the RSV vaccine. MORE: Respiratory virus activity remains 'high' in US and will 'continue for several more weeks': CDC As of Friday, the CDC director role remains vacant and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been making final recommendations. In an April meeting, the prior advisory committee voted to recommend RSV vaccination for those aged 50 to 59 with increased risk of disease, but Kennedy did not adopt the recommendations. Instead, it appears Kennedy plans to have the new committee re-discuss the recommendations for RSV vaccination as well as discuss HPV and COVID vaccinations in their meeting scheduled to be held between June 25 and June 27 Moderna's RSV vaccine is based on mRNA technology, which some of the new members have expressed skepticism about, especially in relation to COVID-19 vaccines. Despite availability, RSV vaccination has been lagging. As of April 26, the latest date for which CDC data is available, an estimated 47.5% of adults aged 75 and older and 38.1% of adults aged 60 to 74 with a high-risk condition reported ever having received an RSV vaccine. FDA expands approval of Moderna's RSV vaccine to some adults under age 60 originally appeared on
Los Angeles Times
35 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Kennedy's new CDC panel includes members who have criticized vaccines, spread misinformation
NEW YORK — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management. Kennedy's decision to 'retire' the previous 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was widely decried by doctors' groups and public health organizations, who feared the advisers would be replaced by a group aligned with Kennedy's desire to reassess — and possibly end — longstanding vaccination recommendations. On Tuesday, before he announced his picks, Kennedy said: 'We're going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel — not anti-vaxxers — bringing people on who are credentialed scientists.' The new appointees include Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Assn. of Catholic Nurses. She has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation. Another is Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic as he relayed conspiracy theories around the outbreak and the vaccines that followed. He has appeared on podcasts and other conservative news outlets where he's promoted unproven and alternative treatments for measles and COVID-19. He has claimed that millions of Americans were hypnotized into taking the COVID-19 shots and has suggested that those vaccines cause a form of AIDS. He's downplayed deaths related to one of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. in years. Malone told the Associated Press he will do his best 'to serve with unbiased objectivity and rigor.' Other appointees include Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing irreparable harm. Dr. Cody Meissner, a former ACIP member, also was named. Abram Wagner of the University of Michigan's school of public health, who investigates vaccination programs, said he's not satisfied with the composition of the committee. 'The previous ACIP was made up of technical experts who have spent their lives studying vaccines,' he said. Most people on the current list 'don't have the technical capacity that we would expect out of people who would have to make really complicated decisions involving interpreting complicated scientific data.' He said having Pebsworth on the board is 'incredibly problematic' since she is involved in an organization that 'distributes a lot of misinformation.' Kennedy made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday. The committee, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC directors almost always approve those recommendations on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The CDC's final recommendations are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs. The other appointees are: Of the eight named by Kennedy, perhaps the most experienced in vaccine policy is Meissner, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who has previously served as a member of both ACIP and the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel. During his five-year term as an FDA adviser, the committee was repeatedly asked to review and vote on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that were rapidly developed to fight the pandemic. In September 2021, he joined the majority of panelists who voted against a plan from the Biden administration to offer an extra vaccine dose to all American adults. The panel instead recommended that the extra shot should be limited to seniors and those at higher risk of the disease. Ultimately, the FDA disregarded the panel's recommendation and approved an extra vaccine dose for all adults. In addition to serving on government panels, Meissner has helped author policy statements and vaccination schedules for the American Academy of Pediatrics. ACIP members typically serve in staggered four-year terms, although several appointments were delayed during the Biden administration before positions were filled last year. The voting members are all supposed to have scientific or clinical expertise in immunization, except for one 'consumer representative' who can bring perspective on community and social facets of vaccine programs. Kennedy, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official, has accused the committee of being too closely aligned with vaccine manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. ACIP policies require members to state past collaborations with vaccine companies and to recuse themselves from votes in which they had a conflict of interest, but Kennedy has dismissed those safeguards as weak. Most of the people who best understand vaccines are those who have researched them, which usually requires some degree of collaboration with the companies that develop and sell them, said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. 'If you are to exclude any reputable, respected vaccine expert who has ever engaged even in a limited way with the vaccine industry, you're likely to have a very small pool of folks to draw from,' Schwartz said. The U.S. Senate confirmed Kennedy in February after he promised he would not change the vaccination schedule. But less than a week later, he vowed to investigate childhood vaccines that prevent measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. Kennedy has ignored some of the recommendations ACIP voted for in April, including the endorsement of a new combination shot that protects against five strains of meningococcal bacteria and the expansion of vaccinations against RSV. In late May, Kennedy disregarded the committee and announced the government would change the recommendation for children and pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots. On Monday, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the ACIP, saying he would appoint a new group before the next scheduled meeting in late June. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been posted, but a recent federal notice said votes are expected on vaccinations against flu, COVID-19, HPV, RSV and meningococcal bacteria. A HHS spokesman did not respond to a question about whether there would be only eight ACIP members, or whether more will be named later. Stobbe writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press reporters Matthew Perrone, Amanda Seitz, Devi Shastri and Laura Ungar contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
