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One in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US Food and Drug Administration is shattering under the surveillance of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stoking questions about whether seasonal flu shots or other life-saving vaccines are delayed or difficult to access.
According to an online note, the February meeting, which was postponed, was postponed, in response to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Vaccination Practices (to respond to Public Comments), was postponed. The three-day meeting, What was scheduled for this week was to review the safety and efficacy of vaccines for meningococcal disease, which are being seen revived, as well as RSV, flu, chikungunya and MPOX. It also included two votes related to vaccines in children. It is a government program that purchases and distributes vaccines to state and local health departments for children whose families cannot otherwise pay.
ACIP is usually held three times a year in February, June and October. There is no word on whether or not the February meeting will be rescheduled or when. It is also unclear whether delays will prevent access to the shot.
On Wednesday, the FDA canceled its March 13 vaccine-related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting. No explanation was given for cancellation.
In a statement to CNN on Thursday, the FDA said it would still consider structuring the flu shot, but it didn’t indicate whether it would seek advice guidance or allow public discussion and discussion that would occur in general.
“The FDA will publish recommendations to manufacturers to ensure the latest vaccines are available during the 2025-2026 flu season,” the statement said.
As the US grasps the brutal flu season and experiences a revival of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease, there is uncertainty about the government’s processes to regulate and recommend vaccines. Experts say these infectious diseases are on the rise as they hesitate to use the vaccine. I fear this is just encouraged by the new HHS director.
Kennedy claims he is not an anti-vaccine, but has repeatedly questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccinations, and has questioned the research and regulations that allow them to be used.
Kennedy, who shows he’s making money from law firms suing vaccine manufacturers, has surged some experts advising federal agencies about vaccines. During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy I’m wrong 97% of members of the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee said they had a conflict of interest. In fact, the panel has strict policies to prevent conflicts and a screening process to ensure members are fair when they vote.
Members of the FDA’s Vaccine Committee are subject to strict conflicts of interest rules and must disclose potential conflicts during meetings.
This week, former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden wrote that the false claim that ACIP members vote based on financial connections is one of the “most harmful” falsehoods about vaccines.
Frieden said the 97% figure came from a 2009 report published when he was CDC director. He is now the nonprofit resolved president and CEO, saving lives.
This was a long-term and detailed audit of conflicts of interest forms submitted by all experts who served as CDC advisors in 2007. He said 97% lacked at least one answer. He said it is not the same as a conflict of interest.
“I really think this is classic misinformation,” Frieden told CNN.
Frieden also raised an alarm about the postponed ACIP meeting, writing in a recent LinkedIn post:
As either vaccine board does not place any emphasis on vaccine regulations or recommendations, healthcare providers are worried that restrictions on vaccines and the ability of people to access them will be delayed.
“Canceling this meeting means that vaccine manufacturers may not have the critical information and time needed to produce and distribute target vaccines before the next flu season,” said Dr. Tinatan of the American Infectious Diseases Association after cancelling the FDA Influenza Shot Meeting. “If FDA meetings are not scheduled immediately, many lives will be lost that could be saved by vaccinations.”
In an open letter to Kennedy on February 20th, CDC directors Dr. Susan Monares and Senator Bill Cassidy, Physicians and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, a coalition of groups called the Partnership to combat infectious diseases, calling for a “quickly rescheduling” of the ACIP conference.
“Each ACIP conference holds enormous weight and relevance. Infectious diseases are constantly evolving the enemy. Vaccines are the best tool to constantly adapt and respond to the latest public health threats,” the letter states.
“To make America healthy, we need to have healthy discussions and timely evidence-based decisions. This conference is no different.”
There are several different ways to make an influenza vaccine, but the most common is to grow a selected candidate virus in chicken eggs.
Therefore, the choice of strains contained in the flu vaccine has been carefully adjusted so that manufacturers can deliver shots to doctors’ offices and pharmacies in time.
To sell the flu vaccine in the US, it must contain strains officially selected by the FDA.
That decision usually comes after the World Health Organization’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response Systems Conference, seven Cooperation Centres, and a network of four key regulatory labs based in the US, UK, Japan, China, China, Russia and Australia. Both the CDC and the FDA are members, and representatives from both agencies participated in the ongoing deliberations this week.
“The US has attended this conference,” Covid-19 technical lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said in a news briefing on Friday.
“I want to be very clear that the US is still contributing. I know that there is a lot of attention right now, but I continue to emphasize the importance of this global system.”
These experts meet twice a year in autumn and spring to select strains of countries in the Southern and Northern Hemisphere.
On Friday, he announced the strain he believes will most closely match the virus that will make people sick next fall. These picks replace the H3N2 components of this year’s vaccine. This was only a partial match of the new virus with the circulating virus.
“I don’t think the match is perfect, but it’s a reasonable match and the best prevention we have against influenza infection,” Professor Ian Barr, deputy director of the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Institute and a member of GISRS, said in a new briefing after the selection of strains.
What usually happens next is the 17-member FDA Vaccine Commission meeting recommendations, publicly discuss them, and then independently approve them. The agency will ultimately make a final decision. This may differ from an advisor, but is generally consistent.
There will be no advisory meetings this year. The FDA said it would still make recommendations to the manufacturers, but it did not specify how the decision would be or when it would come.
“If there’s no FDA recommended strain, US manufacturers are kind of deadlock,” said Dr. LJ Tan, Chief Policy and Partnership Director for nonprofit vaccine advocacy groups.
The influenza vaccine maker, who was contacted by CNN on Thursday, said missed the VRBPAC meeting would not break their course.
“Early every year we have started production for the 2025-2026 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere and are ready to support our final strain selection in time for the season,” Sanofi wrote in a statement to CNN.
GSK also said it will continue to work with the FDA on its recommendations for flu strains in the US.
But cancelling the VRBPAC meeting will steal Americans from public debate and debate, and debate that will take place when these experts meet. That reduces the transparency of the process, said Sunburn at Immunize.org.
“Bypassing the expert advisory board is extremely dangerous,” Tan said.
During a Senate confirmation hearing, Kennedy promised “radical transparency” at HHS.
“Public health agencies should be transparent and if you want Americans to restore confidence in public health agencies, you need transparency,” Kennedy said.
Vaccine advocates say the cancellation of the advisory board meeting will undermine that goal.
“We heard what we thought. We can see how we came to the conclusion that we did for people who are opposed to some things and are interested,” said Dr. Stanley Perman, a member of the FDA’s VRBPAC, a pediatrician and immunologist at the University of Iowa.
Perlman said he is also worried about skipping committee meetings to take the public out of the window into government’s vaccine decisions.
“Right now, the country is very fluid about what it thinks about vaccines, what it thinks about medical devices, what it thinks about drugs. Hopefully, the more transparent the committee is coming from, the more it’s going to be.”
Other experts agreed that the committee is a key layer of independent reviews.
“It’s like taking an expert out of a conversation,” said Dr. William Moss, a pediatrician who oversees the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Many of these decisions are tricky and subtle, giving opportunities to a group of experts who are familiar with these vaccines and are familiar with these diseases. What you know is very important.”
The FDA has not stated how to choose vaccine strains for the fall, but if anyone recommends it means that the US will rely on data from the organization despite President Donald Trump’s order to withdraw support from WHO and stop sharing information.
“It’s part of the chaos whether it’s planned or just incompetent,” Moss said.
CNN’s Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.