By Mariam Sunny and Sneha S K
(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outside expert panel will convene on Tuesday after a nearly two-month delay and expects to review guidelines for several vaccines including recommendations for the next generation of COVID-19 shots.
The two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also plans to discuss the ongoing U.S. measles outbreak that has infected over 700 people this year, mostly among unvaccinated people in Texas and New Mexico.
The meeting was abruptly delayed in February just days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic, became head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
CDC, which is part of HHS, said the meeting had been postponed to allow for public comment.
Kennedy has denied being “anti-vaccine” and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting vaccinated. His pledges to protect existing vaccination programs helped Kennedy clinch key votes at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, a U.S. senator and physician from Louisiana, said Kennedy had promised to honor decisions by the CDC’s ACIP without changes.
The panel will discuss and vote on usage recommendations for several vaccines, including for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease.
It will also discuss updated COVID shots and whether to narrow recommendations on who should receive them for the 2025-2026 season to a smaller group of people.
The agency currently recommends that individuals aged six months and older should be given an updated COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of previous inoculations for the disease.
COVID was not on the original agenda for the scheduled February meeting.
Dr. William Schaffner, a liaison to ACIP from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said the agenda for the meeting suggests it would be a routine annual discussion.
“The bottom line is: so far so good,” he said.
The expert panel normally holds multiple meetings a year, reviews scientific data and makes recommendations to the CDC director, who must then approve them.
“Having regular ACIP meetings allows for vaccine updates to be made, new vaccines be incorporated into the schedule, and allows the American public to take time to listen and to take note if they would like,” said committee chair Dr. Helen Talbot.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra, Mariam Sunny and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
