The back-to-back high-level disruptions in vaccine policy under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. comes as the U.S. records its first death from measles since 2015.
An upcoming meeting of the FDA’s external advisers for vaccine policy has been canceled, according to a Wednesday report by Reuters.
Citing Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), Reuters revealed that an upcoming March 13 meeting has been canceled without explanation. The committee, composed of independent and external experts who regularly convene to assess the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and other similar products, was supposed to select strains for inclusion in the upcoming 2025-2026 flu season.
A separate subcommittee meeting was also canceled, Offit told Reuters.
The cancellation of the VRBPAC meeting is the second high-level disruption of vaccine policy in the U.S. since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month.
Last week, news broke that the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) had also been postponed. As per its original schedule, the ACIP was supposed to have convened Thursday to update the country’s vaccination guidelines for 10 infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, Mpox and the flu. The panel was also scheduled to discuss new vaccines, including GSK’s recently approved meningococcal jab Penmenvy and a pair of mRNA shots from Moderna.
The ACIP advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to best use available vaccines to effectively control illnesses in the country.
Also on Wednesday, the HHS suspended a multi-billion dollar government contract with California biotech Vaxart, signed during the term of former President Joe Biden, to develop an oral COVID-19 vaccine. The stop order, first reported by Fox News, will last for 90 days, which will give officials time to evaluate Vaxart’s initial findings. Trials for the next leg of the study were scheduled to start next week.
During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, several senators from across the aisle raised concerns about his history of criticizing vaccines, pointing to the potential harms that he could have on public health.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, was particularly torn about Kennedy, saying during a hearing that he was unsure of voting for someone “who spent decades criticizing vaccines, and who’s financially vested in finding fault with vaccines.” Cassidy noted that anti-vaccine policies that Kennedy could push as HHS secretary could have dire consequences for people with preventable diseases and complications.
Cassidy ultimately did fall in line with his party and voted to confirm Kennedy, though his concerns remain pertinent. On Wednesday, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced that a child had died of measles—the first such death since 2015. The child was not vaccinated for the disease, according to Texas authorities.
