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Vaccine panel meeting changes raise concerns among
experts,
former members
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Experts raise concerns over thimerosal presentation by
anti-vaccine group member
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New panel member Kulldorff to present data summary on
combination measles vaccines
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HHS spokesperson says additions, schedules in line with
established procedures
By Julie Steenhuysen and Michael Erman
CHICAGO, June 25 (Reuters) -
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s newly
reconstituted vaccine advisory panel, set to convene on
Wednesday, has already strayed from norms and procedures
designed to ensure scientific rigor and consensus, panel
members, advisers and former government employees told Reuters.
Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about
vaccine safety, this month fired all 17 members of a Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel and
replaced them with eight of his picks. At least two CDC staff
members have left over the changes.
Typically, vaccine advisory meetings require months of
preparation and multiple subcommittee meetings with career CDC
experts, panel members and outside experts who review scientific
data and present recommendations for the committee to consider
and vote on.
Agendas and voting questions are typically posted publicly
weeks before to allow for public comment.
Instead, the final meeting agenda for Wednesday's meeting
was posted on the CDC's website, and then changed on Tuesday,
shifting who was assigned to present recommendations on a newly
raised flu vaccine question.
COVID and influenza work group meetings to prepare for
Wednesday's panel were cancelled because no new ACIP members had
been assigned, members of the groups said.
And one of the new panel members was slated to present data,
rather than listen to information vetted and approved by a work
group and presented to the whole panel by CDC expert staff,
according to the meeting agenda.
An HHS spokesperson disputed the concerns, saying the
additions and scheduling decisions were made transparently and
in line with established procedures.
Lyn Redwood, former leader of Children's Health Defense,
an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, is scheduled to make a
presentation on Wednesday on flu vaccines containing thimerosal,
a preservative that has been largely phased out of U.S.
vaccines, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
"The normal process is for material and issues that are
brought before the full committee to come through the work
groups, those are the subcommittees," said Dr. William
Schaffner, a infectious disease and vaccine expert at Vanderbilt
University Medical Center who serves on the influenza work
group.
"I can tell you that the influenza vaccine work group has
not discussed thimerosal," he said.
Redwood's presentation makes the case that thimerosal is
a known neurotoxin and that the panel should recommend only
thimerosal-free flu vaccines for all pregnant women, infants and
children, according to slides posted on the CDC's website on
Tuesday. Reuters was unable to reach Redwood for comment.
A CDC briefing document compiled by staff and also posted on
Tuesday noted in the 2024-2025 season, 96% of all influenza
vaccines in the United States were thimerosal-free. It included
a review of scientific literature and concluded that there is no
link between vaccines containing thimerosal and autism or other
neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco,
called it "unheard of" that the lead presentation on thimerosal
is being given by Redwood, given her association with an
anti-vaccine organization.
"The procedures do not directly forbid it, but at least
imply that presentations would be vetted by the work groups and
presented by them," she said.
Former CDC vaccine expert Dr. Fiona Havers, a 13-year
veteran of the agency who resigned on June 16 over Kennedy's
recent changes, said a presentation scheduled to be given by new
panel member, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, on combination measles
vaccines was highly unusual.
Kulldorff is a biostatistician and epidemiologist who
publicly criticized COVID-era lockdowns and served as an expert
witness against Merck's ( MRK ) Gardasil vaccine used to prevent
cancer from human papillomavirus. Kulldorff will be summarizing
data on vaccines that combine immunizations for measles, mumps,
Rubella with the varicella vaccine, which prevents chickenpox.
"I have never seen a sitting member of ACIP on the schedule
do a presentation summarizing data," she said, noting that the
addition of both Redwood and Kulldorff "appears to be bypassing
usual ACIP processes."