CDC's vaccine advisers meet to question long-used vaccines

"Powerful federal advisers this week are expected to make a controversial change to how babies are immunized against hepatitis B, and to question how pediatricians inoculate children against more than a dozen other infectious diseases, including measles, mumps, whooping cough and polio. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is convening Thursday and Friday for a closely watched meeting to rethink fundamental elements of the childhood vaccination schedule, which has protected children from dangerous diseases for decades."

"The potential changes are welcomed by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long questioned the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. "We're now starting to see truth telling about vaccines, and needless to say, pharma, medicine, academia, mainstream media are not happy," Mary Holland of Children's Health Defense said in a video posted to the group's social media page. The nonprofit advocates against vaccines and was co-founded by Kennedy."

"The meeting underscores grave concerns among many public health experts, who fear it will further erode childhood vaccinations, leading to a resurgence of preventable infectious diseases. "We now seem to have entered a dangerous new phase in Secretary Kennedy's campaign to shut down scientific expertise, silence the best available evidence, and replace it with his own personal agenda," said Dr. Sean O'Leary, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Anschutz who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics's committee on infectious diseases."

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to reconsider how infants are immunized against hepatitis B and to evaluate the childhood vaccination schedule for more than a dozen diseases, including measles, mumps, pertussis and polio. Allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. welcome potential changes, reflecting his long-standing skepticism about vaccine safety and effectiveness. Children's Health Defense publicly supported the review. Many public health experts express grave concern that the deliberations could erode trust in vaccines, lower childhood immunization rates and increase the risk of resurgent preventable infectious diseases.

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