RFK Jr. vaccine panel rolls back recommendation on certain flu shots

• The recommendation still has to be approved by the CDC, which lacks a full-time political leader. Kennedy has long promoted the belief that vaccines or other environmental factors have led to increased autism diagnoses in children.

Driving the news: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, meeting for a second day in Atlanta, voted to advise that children, pregnant women and adults only get single-dose seasonal flu vaccines that are thimerosal-free.

• All of the recommendations were passed with 5-1 votes with one abstention.
• The votes followed a presentation on thimerosal by Lyn Redwood, a retired nurse and former president of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group with close ties to Kennedy.

The panel separately voted to continue recommending routine annual flu shots for anyone older than 6 months who would otherwise be at risk.

• Six members voted in favor of the recommendation and one abstained.

Between the lines: Vaccines recommended for children under 6 in the U.S. have not contained thimerosal for more than two decades. Flu vaccines are available in single-dose vials without thimerosal and in multidose vials with the preservative.

• Most Americans who get flu vaccines already receive products without thimerosal.
• Panel member Cody Meissner, a pediatrician, voted no on all of the recommendations around thimerosal, saying they could limit access to safe and effective flu shots.
• "Of all the issues that I think we ACIP needs to focus on, this is not a big issue," Meissner said.
• "The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent, as far as we know, risk from thimerosal," he added later on. "I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine because the only available preparation contains thimerosal. I find that very hard to justify."

Committee member Vicki Pebsworth abstained from all the flu vaccine-related votes. She later said that she agrees thimerosal should not be used in vaccines, but she objected to how the questions were worded.

Friction point: Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, asked if CDC staff scientists would also present evidence on the safety and efficacy of thimerosal for the committee to review.

• ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff said the panel was open to a variety of views but added, "I think it's inappropriate to dismiss a presentation just because the person does not have a Ph.D. or an M.D."

Catch up quick: The committee voted 5-2 earlier on Thursday in favor of recommending RSV antibodies for infants.

• Kulldorff also gave a short presentation on the combination measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine that ended with a proposed recommendation that children under 47 months old not get the MMRV vaccine, since a safer alternative exists.
• He indicated that the committee will discuss and vote on the recommendation at a future meeting.

What they're saying: "Although the committee made some correct decisions today, health care providers and insurers should be wary of the decisions from this committee, so long as it's stacked with RFK Jr.'s puppets," Elizabeth Jacobs, professor emerita of epidemiology at the University of Arizona and a member of advocacy group Defend Public Health, said in a statement.

• "Medical societies are gearing up to provide up-to-date vaccination guidance, and that's where healthcare providers and patients should look. It's tragic that this is necessary, but it's literally a matter of life and death."