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Five new members have been named to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Monday, just days ahead of a key meeting about vaccines for Covid-19 and other diseases. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been preparing to appoint as many as seven new members for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is tasked with reviewing the latest science on vaccines and then making recommendations to the CDC on how they should be used. (Dillinger and Goodman, 9/15)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine advisory committee meets this week, with votes expected on whether to change recommendations on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. The exact questions to be voted on Thursday and Friday in Atlanta are unclear. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to questions seeking details to a newly posted agenda, although the department announced five additional appointments to the committee Monday. (Stobbe, 9/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Expected To Recommend Delaying Hepatitis B Shot For Children

A key federal vaccine advisory panel whose members were recently replaced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to vote to recommend delaying until age 4 the hepatitis B vaccine that’s currently given to newborns, according to two former senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials. “There is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life,” said Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (Fortiér, 9/16)

Although members of Congress have tried to pass legislation several times to give the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP, more resources — including the ability to hire more special masters, who act as judges — the efforts have never succeeded. Because Congress created the VICP, only Congress has the authority to update or eliminate it, Reiss said. Yet the health secretary wields significant power over the program. And he has big plans. (Szabo, 9/15)

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says he does not want mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to be available in Florida. In a podcast interview published Sunday, Ladapo was asked about the state’s announcement this month that officials intended to end all vaccine mandates. He said the controversy over the announcement was overblown because vaccines would continue to be available to those who want them — with one potential exception. (Wilson, 9/15)

Susan Monarez will offer new details on her ouster as head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a congressional hearing, including that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed that all policy and personnel decisions would have to be cleared by the agency’s political staff. Monarez — who was fired just weeks into the job as CDC director — is set to testify in front of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on Wednesday. (Muller and Cohrs Zhang, 9/15)

For more than a half-century, vaccines have had remarkable success eradicating the most lethal and devastating childhood infectious diseases, saving millions of lives and ushering in a relative golden era of global public health. But now, America is dangerously backsliding. The vast majority of counties across the United States are experiencing declining rates of childhood vaccination and have been for years, according to an NBC News data investigation, the most comprehensive analysis of vaccinations and school exemptions to date. (Edwards, Kane, Gosk, Fattah and Murphy, 9/15)

The overwhelming majority of American adults—70%—support school mandates or requirements for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to a new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. This percentage is higher than even 2 years ago and contradicts recent messaging from US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Soucheray, 9/15)

Falling vaccination rates among U.S. children may make local outbreaks of highly contagious measles cases increasingly common -- and that's bringing parents into clinicians' offices with plenty of questions about vaccines. In an online seminar for clinicians Thursday, CDC officials delivered evidence-based answers to many of those questions. (Rudd, 9/15)

The 2024-25 flu season was the highest severity flu season in more than a decade, according to an analysis of US data published last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Dall, 9/15)