CDC advisers vote to recommend against combo vaccine for young kids, delay vote on newborn hepatitis B shot
USA Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The consultants’ meeting ended with the sudden delayed vote on Thursday to guide the centers for the US Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine suggestions, vote against a vaccine used for young children, and confusion around some children.
CDC’s vaccination practices Advisory Committee delayed the expected vote in the Hepatitis B vaccines of newborns until Friday. The expected voting can change the long -term US vaccine policy to reduce infections between infants to a double digit per year.
However, the committee voted for 8-3 and the combined measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (MMRV) vaccine was not recommended before the age of 4. Children in this age group said that measles, mumps and red tables or MMR should take vaccines separately from Varicella vaccine. Variceella is the virus that causes Suicimpox.
Joseph R. Hibbeln, Dr. Hilary Blackburn and Dr. Cody Meissner voted no vote and Robert Malone refused to vote because of conflicts of interest.
However, the committee also voted to change the previous MMRV proposal for vaccinations for children who have access to low -income children. This means that children who receive free vaccines through the federal program can choose between a single combination shoot or two separate injections for their first vaccination.
Eight members voted not to change the advice for the VFC program. A member yes and three abstained; Me Meissner did that, because he wasn’t sure what they were voting for. A few members expressed confusion about the effect of vaccines on the vote of children.
Me If we vote on this issue, we say that there will be different suggestions for children who get vaccinated through VFC, compared to children who do not.
The advice of the advisory group is not certain. HHS said on Thursday, “Before a final decision by the acting manager, he will examine the results of all insurance scope following today’s Acıp advice.” Kennedy Deputy Jim O’Neill, Dr. After Susan Monarez was suddenly dismissed as the president of the agency last month, he served as CDC Director.
The CDC vaccination committee has changed significantly in just a few months. In June, Kennedy suddenly lifted 17 seating members and later changed them with eight of their choices, although they withdrew during the veterinary process. This week Kennedy added five new members.
Processes, committees and priorities have changed, and this can affect the vaccines that people can receive. In addition to the guidance of doctors by doctors, the state vaccination policy, the vaccine program for the child, and the insurance scope.
Although actions such as voting on Thursday’s MMRV shooting may seem like a small tweak, experts said the fact that Acıp visited the old vaccines again may have a greater impact.
President of the American Doctors College and ACIP Contact Member who did not vote on Thursday. Jason Goldman, “the beginning of the end, because the process of confidence in the process,” he said.
“They eliminate the freedom of choice of individuals to decide what is the best for health services,” CNN said. “It affects the scope of vaccines and forms the basis of decisions to be made without good scientific discussion or evidence.”
Changes for MMRV vaccines for children
Currently, parents can choose to vaccinate with a single MMRV shot or two shots at the age of 1: one covering measles, mumps and rubella, and the other Varicella. Giving the shots separately reduces the chances of rare seizures after a high fever called a hot seizure.
In clinical studies, taking a MMRV vaccine for a first dose of about 12 months has doubled the risk of a child to have a hot seizure of a child compared to taking MMR and Varikella vaccines separately. However, this risk of firearm was still small: according to the vaccine safety data connection, a security monitoring system of CDC, approximately 4.3 cases for every 10,000 doses given.
Acıp first recognized this risk in 2009 and suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and chicken pox vaccine be given to children with the first dose of these vaccines. However, the committee said that if it is what parents prefer, parents could still choose the combined MMRV shooting.
According to the data collected by the CDC, approximately 85% of children receive MMR and JuckiesPox vaccines separately for their first doses. Approximately 15% of children receive a single dose of the combination of MMRV vaccine.
Indeed, some ACIP members questioned why guidance was revised on Thursday.
“This discussion is really Déjà vu for me because we had a comprehensive debate on this issue 15 years ago, Me said Meissner, a pediatrician of Geesel Medical Faculty in Dartmouth, from 2008 to 2012, from 2008 to 2012.
No new security concerns have been identified with vaccines or problems.
A pediatrician who participated in the meeting as a representative of the Adolescent Health and Medicine Association. “I haven’t heard of any information about the urgency of this decision. I’m not sure why it should be done today,” Amy Middleman said.
If CDC accepts the advice of vaccine consultants, there may be changes under insurance – but may not be yet.
The biggest trade union for the country’s health insurers, in a statement this week, any proposal arising from Acıp’s meeting will not have any impact on the scope of its members for now.
Ahip, who was formerly the American health insurance plans, said that more than 200 million Americans will continue to cover all vaccinations that Acıp proposed free of charge to patients from September 1 to the end of 2026. This includes updated Covid-19 and influenza vaccines.
Potential changes in hepatitis B for newborns
At the end of the meeting on Thursday, a separate vote that could change the long -term proposal to instill newborns against Hepatitis B was postponed until Friday.
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that can quietly carved in the body for years and can damage the liver. When adults are infected with the virus, they usually remove without a permanent effect.
A different story for children: Approximately 90% of infected infants continue to develop chronic infections. People with chronic hepatitis B infection are more likely to need liver scar or cancer development or liver transplantation in life. Approximately 1 out of 4 children infected will die early from infections.
Since 1991, CDC suggested that babies take a dose of a hepatitis B vaccine before going home immediately after birth. This policy has helped to reduce hepatitis B infections in infants, from approximately 18,000 cases each year to about 20 cases.
Anti-peel activists have long questioned the need for the birth dose of the vaccine, because Hepatitis B is mainly transmitted by dirty drug needles or sexual activity.
“Why did you give this to a 1 -day child?” Kennedy asked In June Municipal Hall Hosted by Newsnation. “This is really a motive of profit.”
On Thursday, the ACIP members thought whether the first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine would be given at birth, or whether the babies tested their mothers for the virus, whether they would be given when they were one month.
Babies born from mothers who tested positively for Hepatitis B, their mothers are unknown to the Hepatitis B status.
However, delaying the vaccination of a baby also increases the risk that they will never take their shots. Even if the mother of a baby is negative, other members of their homes may carry the virus and leave them unprotected for the first few weeks.
Hepatitis B is quite infectious – about 100 times more contagious than HIV – and can survive on surfaces for up to seven days. Potentially, it can be transmitted by contact with small amounts of blood on shaving machines or toothbrushes, even bites from another child in daytime care.
Some members of the CDC committee felt that the potential change ignores such a transmission.
Hibbeln, a psychiatrist, said, “This assumes that all infections are positive or negative, all infections come from mothers, and this is obviously not.
Dr. Louisiana, a birth specialist-gynecologist who joined Acıp this week. Evelyn Griffin felt that the birth dose was an informed approval issue.
“If half people do not know that they are hepatitis B-positive, how can you get informed consent?” Hibbeln opposed.
Since most mothers stayed in the hospital for at least 24 hours after birth, Griffin said it was time to test the mother and report her status before deciding to instill the baby.
Some experts, although the vaccination policy of the next Acı Eygun is not a complete revision, waiting for vaccination can be damaged, he said.
Chicago Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital president of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Division. “This is still missing the most vulnerable window for the protection of babies, Rav said Ravi Jhaver. “The first suggestion is that we entered into force and the standard of maintenance.”
A challenge to old CDC leaders
It was unusual for Acıp to visit the long -standing vaccine proposals without new evidence. The meeting on Thursday was unusually opened and invited many of the former executives of the agency, which was established recently, to özgür a live discussion about vaccines ..
Kuldorff said in his words that public members can only know who they will trust for scientific advice through discussion.
“We are currently having fiery discussions about vaccines and a key question is: Who can trust? Here is my advice. When there are different scientific opinions, he trusts scientists who want to deal with other views with scientists and to discuss the public,” he said.
Kulldorff quickly returned to the perception of the Committee as an anti -vaccine after Kennedy quickly gave the name of new members, many of whom lacked expertise in vaccines or made unproven allegations or criticisms about them.
Kuldorff said, “The truth is that the honest vaccine scientists, who allow the data to talk about whether the results are not in one direction or the other.“ Members of this ACIP committee are determined to secure the public and reclaim public confidence by removing unnecessary risks and damages as possible. This is a pro -vaccine agenda. “
Kulldorff, the Swedish epidemiologist and a bioistatist, the leading early critic of the US government’s coronavirus reaction New York Times OP/ED Criticizing Kennedy’s vaccination movements. Richard Besser, Ph.D. Mandy Cohen, Dr. William Foege, Dr. Tom Fyen, Dr. William Rope, Dr. David Satcher, Dr. Anne Schuchat and Dr. David Satcher – Anne Schuchat and Dr. Rochelle Walkensky – and recently Debra Soudy, Dr.
In OP/ED, former directors wrote that Kennedy’s decisions and impacts are like nothing we have seen in the agency and that our country has not been like anything ever experienced ”. They said that they were concerned about “comprehensive” health safety effects and stacked Kennedy’s CDC advisory committees with “unqualified people who share dangerous and non -scientific views”.
Besser, the President and CEO of the Robert Wood Wood Johnson Foundation, said Kulldorff’s suggestions for doctors and families are no longer reliable, Kul
Besser, “If the committee continues on this road, the health repercussions will be severe for our nation,” he said. “I urge the ACIP chair and its members to approach their work with the seriousness of commitment and commitment to science requested by this responsibility. Lives are in danger.”
Meg Tirrell from CNN, Jamie Gumbrecht, Tami Luhby and Katherine Dillinger contributed to this report.
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