The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 vaccine work group today assured the agency’s new panel of vaccine advisers that the vaccines are necessary, effective and have no safety concerns beyond a small risk of myocarditis among an age-limited group of young men.
The new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) pushed back on several claims made by the presenters, including the agency’s methods for assessing efficacy and safety.
They also questioned claims the group made about how dangerous the COVID-19 virus is, especially for children.
ACIP didn’t schedule a vote today on COVID-19 vaccines. The committee only heard data presentations by the work group and engaged in a question-and-answer session.
Today’s meeting was the first since U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the previous 17 ACIP members and replaced them with eight (now seven) new members.
The work group members haven’t changed under the new administration.
Last month, Kennedy announced changes to the COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for children and pregnant women.
The CDC now recommends “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and providers for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years who are not moderately immunocompromised. The agency changed its guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women from recommended to “no guidance.”
After several hours of presentations, the work group concluded that the 2024-2025 vaccines were effective in preventing hospitalizations and critical outcomes from COVID-19 in adults, that there is robust safety surveillance with no known risks beyond myocarditis.
The group also concluded that pregnant women are at greater risk from COVID-19, and that maternal vaccination has been shown to protect infants — a claim unsupported by any data from the presentations, said Dr. Meryl Nass, who live-blogged the meeting for CHD.TV.
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