The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is set to vote to change recommendations for the combined measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine; COVID-19 shots; and hepatitis B. The panel is widely expected to delay until age 4 the current recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
But the exact questions the panel will be voting on are unclear and have not been publicly posted despite Kennedy’s pledge for agency transparency.
The hepatitis B vaccine has been credited with saving tens of thousands of lives since physicians began administering it at birth more than 30 years ago, but panel members in June suggested they wanted to revisit that recommendation.
The votes and discussions could raise unwarranted questions and undermine confidence in effective vaccines. They could also sow confusion about insurance coverage, as all ACIP-recommended vaccines must be covered at no cost.
Major health insurers got ahead of the meeting this week and assured the public that currently recommended vaccines would still be covered even if the panel recommended restrictions.
Industry group AHIP announced its member health plans will continue to cover immunizations that were recommended as of Sept. 1— including the flu and updated COVID-19 shots— with no cost-sharing for patients through the end of 2026.
On Wednesday, former CDC Director Susan Monarez said the ACIP meeting was at the core of her termination as she refused to preapprove recommendations that came from the panel without evidence to back them up.
“I had suggested that I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science were supportive, and he responded that there was no science or evidence associated with a childhood vaccine schedule,” Monarez said of her final conversation with Kennedy.
Monarez testified that Kennedy told her the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing starting in September, “and I needed to be on board with it.”
Former CDC Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry said the meeting agenda was put together with almost no input from her agency’s staffers, with political appointees deciding the bulk of the meeting.
While her staffers were consulted about COVID-19 vaccines, Houry said her suggestion to include input about hepatitis B vaccines was rebuffed, allegedly because it would “bias moving away from a birth dose.”
Houry specifically named Kennedy’s aide Stuart Burns as helping draft the ACIP agenda.
Burns is a veteran House GOP aide who is now a special advisor at CDC. He spent decades working for Republicans known for their anti-vaccine views, including former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon, Kennedy’s first pick for CDC director whose nomination was withdrawn by the White House.
