A shakeup in U.S. vaccination policy has stalled new recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), leaving vaccine access in flux amid ongoing fallout from past disruptions. The health secretary has overhauled the committee’s composition, removing long-standing experts and replacing them with allies, while also slashing childhood immunization guidelines. Experts warn the changes could prolong uncertainty in vaccine access for years, compounding the damage from previous policy upheavals. The move raises concerns about the future of public health guidance as new vaccines continue to be approved.
Health secretary’s effort to alter makeup of ACIP panel means no new recommendations coming – even as new vaccines are approvedUS vaccine recommendations are in limbo, access to vaccines is suffering, and some of the uncertainty may continue for years following major blows to vaccination by the Trump administration, experts say.Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has made sweeping changes to vaccination policy, cutting childhood immunization recommendations by a third and replacing experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with his own handpicked allies. Continue reading...
