The new members of the Committee, Dr. Robert Malone, on the left, and Dr. Joseph Hibbeln at the first meeting of the CDC advisory committee on vaccination practices for centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.
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An influential committee that shapes the policy of American vaccines – a flash point under the direction of the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – recommended that adults and children will no longer receive vaccines against flu containing traces of conservative It is rarely used.
The discussion on the Thimérosal, a form of mercury which is sometimes added to the vaccines for sterilization, dominated a large part of the public meeting on Thursday of the advisory committee of vaccination practices, or ACIP. The Committee guides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the calendar of vaccines for children and adults.
The two -day meeting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta was unusually publicized, given Kennedy’s recent decision to start the entire expert committee a few weeks ago and replace them with His own hand sorted listwho included certain members with a story to make inaccurate statements on vaccine safety.
While the AIPI generally includes 17 voting members, Kennedy’s revised panel includes only seven of them, following a last minute decision of one of them to resign.
Thursday, the majority of the panel voted to reaffirm the existing recommendations of the CDC that anyone over six months receives the annual flu vaccine. They also voted 5-2 in favor of a monoclonal antibody fired by Merck which offers protection against the syncytial respiratory virus, or RSV, for infants under 8 months of age.
But in three separate votes, the committee voted to recommend children, pregnant women and all adults receive vaccinations against unique dose flu with vaccines that do not have thimérosal.
Theories that the chemical could cause autism in children long refuted. Despite this, the manufacturers voluntarily removed it from infantile vaccines. While used In some multi-dose bottles In several products, there are no vaccines on the calendar of pediatric vaccines containing Thimérosal.
ACIPT votes could effectively prohibit the use of the curator, despite a preponderance of evidence that he is sure.
Dr Cody MeissnerProfessor of pediatrics at Dartmouth College, was the only member of the AIPI who voted against these recommendations.
“Of all the problems on which the AIPI must concentrate, it is not a big problem,” he said. “The risk of flu is much greater than the nonexistent risk, to our knowledge, the risk of Thimérosal.”
He added: “There is no scientific evidence that Thimérosal caused a problem.”
Meissner’s comments came in response to a long presentation on the conservative of Lyn Redwood, nurse and former president of the defense of children’s health, the anti-vaccine defense group that Kennedy founded and led for many years.
“The elimination of a known neurotoxin of injection in our most vulnerable population is a good point to start from America healthy,” she said to the committee.
A large part of what Redwood said about Thimérosal was undermined by A CDC document This was initially published with the meeting equipment – then without deleted explanation before the meeting. He detailed the literature evaluated by peers showing “no association between prenatal exposure to vaccinations containing Thimérosal and the autism spectrum disorder in children.”
In response to a question about the reason why the document had been demolished, Dr. Robert Malone, member of the AIPI, said that her understanding was that she had not been “authorized by the secretary’s office”.
Committee members questioned the analyzes provided by the CDC and wondered if they were unaware of the data on adverse events that presented themselves in relation to the studies they presented, even after the staff explained that they had carefully analyzed the data.
Eminent medical groups praised the recommendations on the flu and the RSV, but expressed their concern about the general tone of the meeting.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics’ infectious disease committee, said ACIP discussion on flu and RSV “confirmed that it was an orchestrated effort to sow the distrust of immunizations and the vaccine approval process”.
Although the person who serves as a CDC director generally enrolls in the recommendations of the AIPI, there is no one in the role currently, so the responsibility of signing these recommendations goes to the Kennedy Health Secretary.
