New York (AFP) – A US panel stacked with figures sympathetic to the anti-vaccine movement will on Thursday take on federal immunization recommendations in a highly politicized meeting that could upend longstanding medical advice.
President Donald Trump's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., handpicked the voting members of the medical advisory group that is expected to consider whether to alter the standard childhood vaccine schedule -- a move public health experts warn could have dire consequences.
The specific questions that will come to a vote during the two-day meeting in Atlanta aren't public, but it's expected discussion will include delaying childhood shots including against the highly contagious disease Hepatitis B.
The Covid-19 vaccine is also on the agenda, as well as the combination MMRV shot that covers measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella shot, which is offered as an alternative to separate MMR and chicken pox injections.
They're expected to discuss the small increase in risk of febrile seizures that could result from the combined MMRV jab.
Earlier this year anti-vaccine advocate Kennedy fired all 17 members of the influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with members whose vaccine skepticism tracks more closely with his own.
Their first meeting promoted anti-vax themes and raised questions about long-settled medical debates.
The revised committee and its agenda has many members of the medical, scientific and policy communities concerned that ideology rather than science will guide the future of public health in the United States.
"Vaccines have added decades of life to our life expectancy. They have helped Americans live healthier lives. There's so much here that's riding," said epidemiologist Syra Madad.
She told AFP shifting the childhood vaccine schedule "is like pulling bricks out of the foundation of public health."
"It risks collapse, and creates real consequences for every community in America."
Experts including Madad say the votes could prompt unnecessary confusion and concern among parents.
Revised recommendations could also restrict federal funding of vaccines for low-income families, or shift requirements for private insurers.