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During a contentious meeting dominated by racial innuendo and anti-vaccine talking points, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today voted to delay a decision on whether to recommend scaling back infant vaccinations for hepatitis B, a virus that kills 1.1 million people around the world each year. Several members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) asked for the postponement after complaining that they hadn't been given sufficient time to consider the wording of the proposal. (Szabo, Van Beusekom and Dall, 12/4)

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Thursday called a federal vaccine advisory committee “totally discredited” ahead of a vote on whether to change hepatitis B vaccine guidelines, an issue very close to the Louisiana physician. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is scheduled to vote on a recommendation to no longer advise birth doses of the hepatitis B vaccine for mothers who are negative for the virus or don’t know their status, instead recommending an “individual-based decision-making” approach. (Choi, 12/4)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC’s) vaccine advisory committee, which helps determine the agency's official immunization recommendations, was once admired around the world for its evidence-based, deliberative review of medical science. But public health experts yesterday warned people not to trust the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). (Szabo, 12/4)

The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel’s decision to invite an anti-vaccine lawyer and ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to brief the panel on Friday is drawing blowback from Kennedy’s top Republican critic on Capitol Hill. Aaron Siri, a vaccine injury lawyer who’s advised and represented Kennedy, is scheduled to present on the childhood immunization schedule at the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting in Atlanta. (Gardner, 12/4)

Also —

Americans are more likely to accept guidance on vaccines from the American Medical Association (AMA) than from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), though trust isn’t particular high for either organization, according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll released yesterday. (Soucheray, 12/4)

Although this year's flu season could be challenging, fewer adults have been vaccinated against influenza, a new study shows. Much less than half of US adults have been immunized against any respiratory virus, according to a survey of 1,015 adults released this week by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). Just 34% of adults have gotten a flu shot; 25% have had a COVID-19 shot; 8% have received a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease; and 6% have been vaccinated against respiratory syncytial (RSV). (Szabo, 12/5)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: While Scientists Race To Study Spread Of Measles In US, Kennedy Unravels Hard-Won Gains
The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, the country will enter an era in which outbreaks are common again. More children would be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some would lose their hearing. Some would die. Measles is also expensive. A new study — not yet published in a scientific journal — estimates that the public health response to outbreaks with only a couple of cases costs about $244,000. (Maxmen, 12/5)

On covid vaccines —

The Biden administration withheld data from the public on the risks of myocarditis from the Covid vaccine, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary claimed Thursday — a bold accusation that clashes with years of public statements from federal health officials. (Lovelace Jr. and Thompson, 12/4)

Young and middle-age adults who had at least one dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine were less likely to die of any cause in the following 4 years compared with those who weren't vaccinated, a nationwide French cohort study found. (Rudd, 12/4)