In chaotic start to meeting, CDC vaccine advisers delay hepatitis B vaccine vote, cast new MMRV vaccine vote
A meeting of the CDC's vaccine advisers got off to a chaotic start on Friday with a delayed vote on one vaccine and a redo of a vote from Thursday.
By Brenda Goodman, Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN
(CNN) — Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 11-1 to delay a vote on changes to a newborn hepatitis B shot. It was a surprise twist after a lengthy discussion on the hepatitis B vaccine typically delivered to newborns shortly after birth.
The committee had planned to consider a new recommendation that would wait to give newborns a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine until they are at least a month old. Currently, babies are given this shot at birth, usually before they leave the hospital.
The birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended in the United States since 1991. After it was implemented, hepatitis B infections in infants dropped from an average of 18,000 per year to around 20 reported cases of hepatitis B in babies per year now. Children infected with hepatitis B nearly always develop longterm infections which can damage the liver, increasing the risk for liver scarring, transplant and cancer.
After an abrupt and confusing end to Thursday’s meeting, vaccine advisers also cast new votes on Friday on the combined measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine in the Vaccines for Children program. ACIP members voted Thursday to recommend against using the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine for young children. The new vote on Friday brought the Vaccines for Children program in line with that new recommendation. Nine voted in favor and three members abstained.
The advisory group’s recommendation isn’t final. HHS said in a statement Thursday that it “will examine all insurance coverage implications following today’s ACIP recommendation, prior to a final decision on adoption by the Acting Director.” Kennedy deputy Jim O’Neill is serving as acting CDC director after Dr. Susan Monarez was ousted abruptly as head of the agency last month.
Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians and a non-voting ACIP liaison member, told the members on Friday he was concerned about the conflicting MMRV votes case on Thursday, which would have created different recommendations for people of lower socioeconomic levels.
It suggests, Goldman said, that the second vote “actually revealed the truth that you do not have the data or evidence to challenge the current standing and that there is that there is no associated harm.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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