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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."