A group of scientific experts who recommend the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine policy – and it was the goal of the criticisms of the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – he learned on Wednesday that his next meeting to discuss the flu vaccines next year has been canceled.
The FDA sent an EE -mail to the members of vaccines and to the related consultative committee of organic products on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a high official who is familiar with the decision. There was no reason given. The panel was to meet on March 13th.
A member of the Committee, dr. Paul Offit of the Pediatric Hospital of Filadelphia, a frank critic from Kennedy, confirmed the cancellation and warned that it could interfere or delay the production of flu vaccines.
“It’s a six -month production cycle,” said dr. Offit. “So you can only assume that we are not choosing strains of influence this year.”
The cancellation – and the postponement of the last week of a similar meeting of scientific consultants to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases – plays fears between scientists who care that Mr. Kennedy will use his trespolo to sow doubts about vaccines and interfere with the regulatory process that leads to their approval.
Richard Hughes, a lawyer for some vaccine producers, said that the postponement was worrying since the program to make the flu vaccine tends to be severe enough. The strains are generally selected in the FDA meeting in February or March using the data of the World Health Organization: a report that the United States have moved away from the beginning of the Trump administration. He said the production tends to start in June.
“The stakes are incredibly high,” he said, observing that this year’s flu season has been particularly intense.
According to the CDC, 86 children and 19,000 adults died from influence in this winter season. About 430,000 people were hospitalized. In June, a CDC committee tends to decide whether to recommend the use of the vaccine, which sets in motion insurance and government coverage of vaccines, said Hughes.
As a presidential candidate and more recently as a supporter of President Trump, Kennedy has repeatedly felt “regulatory capture” – the idea that federal regulators are prisoners in industry. He said he intends to eradicate conflicts of interest on the scientific panels that recommend federal regulatory agencies.
The members of these committees often collaborate with the industry; Dr. Offit, for example, is an inventor of a vaccine against the Rotavirus that was developed by the Giant Pharmaceutical Merck. The members of the Committee are currently required to declare their collaborations and go from the vote on issues in which they have financial participation. Kennedy suggested that it wishes more rigorous restrictions.
The meeting of the CDC consultative committee on immunization practices would have covered topics relating to a series of vaccines, including one that protects from the human papillomavirus. Kennedy has been clearly critical of that vaccine.