Sept. 18 (UPI) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel voted to advise against using a combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine for young children.
Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 8-3 to alter the CDC’s current recommendation that allows the use of the combined MMRV vaccine younger than age 4, according to NPR.
The varicella vaccine protects against the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox and shingles.
About 85% of U.S. children receive a vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella and another one for chickenpox, but the CDC allows parents to opt for a single combined vaccine for all four.
The panel also voted against changing the Vaccines for Children program that provides free immunizations for children in low-income households.
The vote ensures parents of qualifying children can choose between separate shots for their children’s first vaccinations or a single combined MMRV shot, CNN reported.
The panel’s recommendations require final approval by the CDC director, which is a vacant position.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. instead has the option to approve or deny the panel’s recommendation in lieu of a CDC director.
The panel met on Thursday and is scheduled to meet again on Friday to discuss the long-used hepatitis B vaccine for newborns and other vaccines.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also is expected to vote on the shots for COVID-19 and hepatitis B.
In June, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of ACIP and has replaced some of them with vaccine skeptics.
The committee is likely to limit use of the hepatitis B vaccine to babies born to mothers with active infection. It might stop recommending the MMRV and restrict who should get the COVID-19 vaccine.
ACIP normally includes pediatricians, geriatricians and other vaccine experts, but the new panel includes a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, epidemiologist and biostatistician, and professor of operations management.
On Wednesday, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez testified in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that Kennedy fired her because she refused to allow all decisions to be approved by political staff.
“He directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation regardless of the scientific evidence. He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy, without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,” Monarez said of Kennedy.
Martin Kulldorff, chairman of the vaccine committee, said in June that ACIP may investigate the hepatitis B recommendation.
“Is it wise to administer a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine to every newborn before leaving the hospital? That’s the question,” The Washington Post reported he said. “Unless the mother is hepatitis B positive, an argument could be made to delay the vaccine for this infection, which is primarily spread by sexual activity and intravenous drug use.”
Demetre Daskalakis disagreed. The former CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases head resigned last month after Monarez was fired. Daskalakis said children who get the dose at birth are more likely to finish the three-dose series. He also said that children could be exposed in the household, even if the mother is negative.
“There is no safety reason not to give the vaccine,” Daskalakis said. “The benefit is cancer and death prevention. Why move it if there is not a reason to?”
The main concern about taking away vaccine recommendations is whether health insurance companies will still cover vaccines for those who want them.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, the national trade association for the health insurance industry, said on Tuesday that health plans will continue to cover all immunizations that were recommended as of Sept. 1, which includes COVID and flu vaccines, at no cost to patients through 2026.
“The evidence-based approach to coverage of immunizations will remain consistent,” the organization said in a statement.
