CDC panel considers major vaccine schedule changes as experts warn of public health risks

Public health experts are raising concerns about sweeping changes to U.S. vaccine policy under the Trump administration.

55 minutes ago

Keenan Gibson,

(CNN)- Public health experts are raising concerns about sweeping changes to U.S. vaccine policy under the Trump administration, as a key CDC advisory committee prepares to revisit long-standing immunization guidelines.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meets Thursday and Friday to re-examine established vaccine protocols — including a likely revision to the timing of the hepatitis B birth dose routinely given to newborns.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, says altering ACIP’s recommendations could have far-reaching consequences.
“A change in the ACIP recommendations can have a dramatic effect on who gets vaccines,” he said. “There are real clinical, lasting impacts from changing these recommendations.”

Committee members — appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have publicly expressed skepticism about the current schedule.
CDC vaccine adviser Vicky Pebsworth said questions remain.
“There are gaps in what we know… and I think the conclusion that we know it is safe is perhaps premature.”

But experts warn delaying the hepatitis B birth dose could lead to more than 1,400 preventable infections in children each year. Dr. Anthony Fiore, a former CDC infectious-disease specialist, says decades of data show the vaccine reduces childhood infections and saves lives.

“We’ve seen tremendous reductions in childhood infections with hepatitis B — and this saves lives,” he noted.

Fiore emphasized that infants infected at birth face nearly a 90% risk of developing chronic disease and says the existing schedule has been proved safe for more than 30 years.
“It’s a remarkably safe vaccine,” he said. “Nothing has been shown to have long-term consequences — certainly nothing approaching the risk of chronic hepatitis B infection.”