With the government reopening, the newly appointed panel of vaccine advisors, selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, is swiftly resuming efforts to revise the federal childhood vaccine schedule.
A meeting initially planned for October has been rescheduled to December 4 and 5, as announced in a Federal Register notice on Thursday. The agenda will cover discussions on vaccine safety, the childhood and adolescent immunization schedule, and hepatitis B vaccines. Additionally, a vote on recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines is expected during the meeting.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is typically composed of top experts in the field who undergo extensive vetting. However, in June, Kennedy replaced all 17 members with 12 new appointees, most of whom have been criticized for lacking proper qualifications and holding anti-vaccine viewpoints.
In their last session in September, the panel planned to vote on changes to the hepatitis B vaccination recommendations but abandoned the vote after realizing the proposed changes were unsupported by data.
Hepatitis B vaccines are administered in three doses to protect against serious liver infections with potential long-term consequences like liver disease and cancer. The first dose is given at birth, the second at 1 to 2 months, and the third between 6 and 18 months. This schedule is critical in preventing exposure to the virus, which can be transmitted by individuals unaware of their infection. Approximately 2.4 million people in the U.S. are infected with the virus, with around half remaining undiagnosed.
During the September meeting, Adam Langer, acting principal deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, presented comprehensive data indicating no significant safety concerns associated with the hepatitis B vaccine, including the initial dose given at birth.