A CDC vaccine committee meeting, the first of Kennedy’s tenure at HHS, gets postponed
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled for next week — the first since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in — has been postponed, a senior HHS official said Thursday.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, was scheduled to meet Feb. 26 through Feb. 28. The group of independent experts convenes three times a year on behalf of the CDC to weigh the pros and cons of newly approved or updated vaccines.
In an emailed statement, Andrew Nixon, a senior spokesperson for HHS, said next week’s meeting was postponed to “accommodate public comment in advance of the meeting.”
“The ACIP workgroups met as scheduled this month and will present at the upcoming ACIP meeting,” Nixon wrote. He didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether the agency had scheduled a new date for the meeting.
There were concerns among public health experts that the vaccine advisory committee could be delayed or postponed given Kennedy’s past criticism of the committee and of vaccinations, particularly childhood vaccines.
As of early Thursday afternoon, the agenda for the meeting was still available on the agency’s website. The discussion included a presentation and vote on the use of the British drugmaker GSK’s meningococcal vaccine. The agenda also included votes for a new chikungunya vaccine and the recently approved at-home nasal spray for influenza.
Earlier Thursday, a spokesperson for GSK told NBC News that the company was expecting the meeting to be held as planned. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the postponement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
