The vaccines and the associated advisory committee of the FDA were planned for next month. However, the agency announced the committee members that the session had been canceled.
Juana Summers, host:
The Food and Drug Administration has canceled an important upcoming meeting via vaccines. The surprise decision is to strengthen the concerns regarding the approach of the Trump management to vaccines here in the USA. The NPR Health correspondent Rob Stein is now joining us. And Rob, I want to start with this meeting. Tell us who should meet and why?
Rob Stein, Byline: This is a committee for independent experts external experts who advises the FDA about vaccines of all kinds as vaccines and related biological products as a consulting committee. People may remember this committee from pandemic. This was the committee that checked all Covid 19 vaccines for the FDA. It should meet on March 13th to check the latest data about several vaccines and, above all, to make an important decision on flu vaccinations from the next season.
Summers: Tell us about it. What exactly should the committee decide on the flu vaccine?
Stein: The committee intended to give a recommendation for the composition of the next flu vaccine – which in the vaccines are exhausting to try to make the shots as effective as possible. The experts check all the latest data about which tribes circulate and advise best, which are most likely to spread next autumn and winter to achieve the best possible game. This is something that happens every year during this time, and timing is crucial because it takes months to produce enough vaccinations. So the process must start early or the vaccine will be too late to protect people.
Summers: Ok. And if there is many years of operation and vaccine production is dependent on this decision, I would imagine that this meeting in the scientific community will not pass very well.
Stone: No, no. The cancellation of this advisory meeting gives many concerns about experts in infectious diseases, lawyers for public health and others. I have with Dr. Paul Offit spoken. He is a vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania, which has been a member of the committee for years.
Paul Offit: Well, it is disappointing that you have canceled this meeting of the consulting committee. We have met in the past decades and longer every March. I think there is a value when an independent committee that examines the data holds it to a very high standard. This is a process that ensures that we have the best science behind the decisions we make.
Stein: He fears that the flu vaccines of the next season may not be in time or not the best game. And this development comes on the heels of the centers for the control and prevention of diseases and prevention, which canceled a similar meeting.
Summers: The Department of Health and Human Services also takes over as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Stone: Yes, absolutely. And you know that HHS monitors both the FDA and the CDC, and Kennedy is a pronounced critic of vaccines. And he also specifically criticized these committees. Kennedy argued during his confirmation hearings that he supported vaccines, but he did not really do without the previous false claims that he had made about her. Dr. William Schaffner is a doctor at Vanderbilt University.
William Schaffner: We all have concerns about vaccine policy in the future, and the more we comply with the routine type of things, the more calmed we will be that vaccines will continue to be available as they should be to the American public.
Stein: He points out that the USA is in one of the worst flu times in years, and the vaccination rates have dropped. And a big eruption of measles – a disease that has come back because not enough parents have their children vaccinated – has already claimed a child’s life in Texas.
Summers: Well, Rob, what does HHS say about the shot for the next flu season?
Stein: The Department of Health and Human Services promises that the FDA will make a decision on the next composition of the flu vaccine in order to ensure that the shots are finished, and a federal official who was not justified to speak publicly told me that the FDA the CDC, vaccine company and others to make this decision.
Summers: NPR Health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thanks.
Stone: You bet.
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