The committee that decides on what vaccines are recommended in the United States (ACIP are its acronym in English) met this Thursday for about seven hours and in a bronco atmosphere, which at times flirted with chaos, to review the recommendations that the centers must apply for the use of vaccines. The novelty was that the members of that committee have put them by finger that perhaps it is the most famous anti -Vacunas in the world: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed as Secretary of Health by Donald Trump. Kennedy fired the experts who formed that team of experts in June and replaced them, half of them this week, for a group that includes several anti -vacacons.
At the meeting, held in Atlanta, the recommendations of three antidotes were discussed: those of the coronavirus, hepatitis B and the viral quadruple (MMRV are its acronym in English), which prevents measles, chickenpox, rubella and papers from once in English).
that was voted. And the Committee changed its recommendation with a result of 8-3: from now on, children are advised to receive two vaccines-a measles, rubella and papera (MMR), and the other, for chickenpox-to protect themselves from each of those diseases instead of one that immunize them from the four of one once. The decisions of the ACIP determine which antidotes makes the United States government free, influences state and local laws and influences which vaccines insurers cover.
The Kennedy -related panel presented data that shows that the combined vaccine slightly increases the risk of seizures caused by fever. Anyway, these do not cause permanent damage. Many pediatricians and parents have chose since 2005 for administering viral quadruple to reduce the number of clinical and injections. The new recommendation advises it. Experts from other medical organizations oppose that decision.
The deliberations of the committee will continue this Friday, with the debate on vaccines against COVID and about the recommended moment for inoculation against hepatitis B, a chronic infection that can cause to cause death.
In June, the month in which the ACIP normally meets, its members voted the recommendations on flu vaccines for this year, but they kept silent about that of the Covid. Before that meeting, Kennedy had promised that this would cease to be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, which caused a stir and caused Kennedy’s demand for the American Pediatrics Association, who has chosen not to participate in the Atlanta meeting as a protest. A few days later, the CDC said they would continue to facilitate vaccines against the crown of the harvest 2024-2025 to the families and that they would also be financed in the event that these were low-income families.
Script change
The next script change came last month, when the drug agency (FDA) restricted the use of the antidote for COVID-19 to healthy children and young people.
The ACIP also examined the hepatitis B vaccine on Thursday, since it is a transmissible disease in childbirth. The newborns are administered in the first 24 hours after birth, provided that they weigh at least 2 kilos. That was the recommendation since 1981. ACIP members doubt their effectiveness, despite the fact that studies indicate that it is able to prevent chronic hepatitis B at 85% -90% of cases.
In the discussions on Thursday, the committee seemed to bow to force the vaccine only to newborns whose mothers are known to be infected with other babies only after they are at least one month of age. That idea harvests the rejection of a good part of the medical community.
Third state by population of the country, announced at the beginning of September that it will stop demanding mandatory vaccination for children of diseases of which they were traditionally prevented, such as measles, paperas or hepatitis B. Several Democratic states have said they will adopt their own measures to issue their own recommendations in their territories. A few days later, Florida reculled, although his governor, Ron Desantis, said he would continue working to eliminate them at all in the future
Kennedy achieved in his confirmation of the Senate with his promise, widely broken in his first months in office, that he would maintain public vaccination standards. On the contrary, he has fired experts and, Susan Monaz, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency who accuses of being responsible for the dead by Covid. It has also limited access to the coronavirus vaccine and messenger RNA that would serve to prepare the country, and the world, for the next pandemic.
This Wednesday, Monararez appeared before the Senate to explain that Kennedy, who was the one who appointed her for the position, already with Trump in the White House, and also who dismissed her within a few weeks, gave her an ultimatum: or committed “in advance to approve all the recommendations of the ACIP [órgano asesor de vacunas]regardless of its scientific base “and say goodbye” to the career officials responsible for the vaccine policy “or it would be the farewell. Kennedy fulfilled her threat, and has not yet been appointed substitute at the head of the CDC.
Monarch, who was attacked by the Republican bench during an audience that lasted several hours, said that at this Thursday meeting of the ACIP there was “a real risk of formulating recommendations (…) without a rigorous scientific review.”
