BMO Capital Markets analysts said the first day of the CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting Thursday had anti-vaccine overtones as the panel, which was revamped by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in June, voted to recommend that children under four receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine separately from a chickenpox vaccine. Today the advisors will vote on changing the childhood schedule for the hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccines.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee voted to recommend narrowing the agency’s guidelines for the MMRV shot for children, a move that analysts think could signal a similar pullback for COVID-19 vaccines.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met Thursday to update the agency’s recommendations regarding the use of vaccines against infectious diseases. The discussion on MMRV—a combination shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella—revolved heavily around the risk of febrile seizures, a rare complication of the vaccine. CDC data suggest that the side effect occurs in 8 of every 10,000 infants aged 12 to 23 months.
The advisors—many of whom have documented histories of anti-vaccine rhetoric—spent much of their time “agonizing over the rare risk of febrile seizures,” according to analysts at BMO Capital Markets. In an 8–3 vote, the panel ultimately decided to only endorse the MMRV combo shot for children aged four and up. In younger children, they recommended giving the MMR and varicella shots separately.
However, the discussions soon turned “contradictory,” according to BMO, with the ACIP ultimately deciding against discontinuing the MMRV coverage for the CDC’s Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, which provides shots to families that may otherwise be unable to afford them. VFC will be able to continue providing the combo MMRV vaccine to children under 4 years of age. “Today’s ACIP meeting emphasized the limited integration of evidence-based medicine in decision-making,” BMO continued. The analysts said they are “more bearish” regarding Friday’s vote on COVID-19 vaccines. “With today’s meeting tone skewing more anti-vaccine, we are less optimistic on COVID-19 vaccine outcomes in Day 2.”
In the committee’s first action of the second day of the meeting on Friday, ACIP held a second vote to reverse the VFC vote, now recommending against a combination MMRV shot under VFC, instead recommending kids get separate MMR and varicella shots.
Also on the ACIP’s docket on Thursday was the hepatitis B vaccine guidelines, where newborns are frequently given a “birth dose” of a hepatitis B vaccine the day after they are born. ACIP is considering recommending moving the shot to one month post-birth. BMO again flagged the panel’s “anti-vaccine tone” and “persistent vaccine skepticism” here. The committee heard a presentation by the CDC’s Adam Langer, in which he insisted that there is “no evidence” to suggest that the risks of “already rare adverse events” are higher in newborns versus older infants. And in instances where these complications do occur, they “tend to be mild,” Langer said.
Panelist Vicky Pebsworth, regional director at the National Association of Catholic Nurses, insisted that, given “gaps” in the information surrounding hepatitis B shots, particularly in infants, concluding that they are safe “is perhaps immature,” as reported by CBS News.
The ACIP was unable to hold a vote for recommendations on hepatitis B vaccination for lack of time. The vote will be held Friday.
