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A child receives a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine earlier this year in Lubbock, Texas.Credit: Jan Sonnenmair\/Getty<\/p>\n
Next week, the panel of top advisers who recommend how vaccines are used in the United States will meet to review jabs that protect against COVID-19, hepatitis B and other diseases. The meeting \u2014 the committee\u2019s second since US health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr abruptly fired all of its previous 17 members and welcomed 7 new ones<\/a> \u2014 has raised eyebrows among public-health specialists, given that the safety and efficacy of some of the vaccines on the agenda have been well established for years.<\/p>\n Who is on RFK Jr\u2019s new vaccine panel \u2014 and what will they do?<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very concerned, given the signalling from the members of this newly reconstituted, hand-picked [committee] that they are going to select targets for further restriction,\u201d says Andrew Pavia, a physician with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a medical association based in Arlington, Virginia. At their last meeting, the advisers \u2014 several of whom have publicly expressed anti-vaccine views \u2014 voted to end the use of the preservative thimerosal in influenza vaccines<\/a> despite evidence that it is safe at the doses found in jabs.<\/p>\n It is unclear exactly what the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will vote on at next week\u2019s meeting, to be held on 18 and 19 September, because the agenda lacks detail, increasing researchers\u2019 concern. \u201cIt\u2019s very unusual for ACIP to put things on the agenda with only a month\u2019s notice and not discuss who\u2019s going to be presenting data, what data is going to be looked at, and what, if any, questions might come up for a vote,\u201d Pavia says.<\/p>\n The US Department of Health and Human Services, which is run by Kennedy and has authority over the ACIP, did not respond to Nature’s request for comment.<\/p>\n Nature spoke to public-health specialists about the vaccines up for discussion, what the committee might vote on and the data they should be considering.<\/p>\n Scrutiny for COVID-19 jabs<\/p>\n Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID-19 vaccines, but it imposed limitations on who can get the shots. Whereas the vaccines were previously authorized for all people aged 6 months and older in the United States, now they are approved only for those older than 65 years, as well as people with health conditions that put them at high risk of severe disease.<\/p>\n RFK Jr demanded a vaccine study be retracted \u2014 the journal said no<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The FDA is responsible for authorizing new vaccines, whereas the ACIP, overseen by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), advises on who should receive them. These recommendations, which are typically adopted by the CDC as official policy, help to inform which vaccines are covered by health insurance<\/p>\n \u201cI assume ACIP could end up mirroring what the FDA has recommended\u201d for COVID-19 shots, says Adam Ratner, a paediatrician with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization based in Itasca, Illinois.<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> following the FDA\u2019s decision on 27 August, the AAP\u2019s president, Susan Kressly, called the move \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d, especially for children, whose safety Kennedy has focused on when questioning vaccines. The previous week, the AAP issued its own recommendation<\/a> that all children, 6 months and older should be vaccinated and, in particular, kids aged 6 to 23 months old, who are at high risk of severe COVID-19.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/d41586-025-02914-y_51098888.jpg\"\/)
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