File photo: The headquarters of the United States Drug and Food Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland, November 4, 2009.
Jason Reed | Reuters
A March Crucial Meeting of Vaccine Advisors to the Food and Drug Administration has been canceled without explanation, said a member of the Advisory Panel to CNBC on Wednesday.
The meeting committee of vaccines and related biological products, or VRBPAC, is held every March to select flu strains for shots published in the next autumn and winter.
But Dr. Paul offit, a member of that panel, told CNBC that he received an email at 4:18 pm et on Wednesday saying that the next meeting of March 13 is canceled. He said there were no indications of whether it will be reprogrammed.
“Who canceled this meeting? Why did they cancel the meeting? Will manufacturers now resort to the World Health Organization to determine tensions for this year's influenza vaccines?” Offit told CNBC.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The canceled meeting occurs when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now leads HHS, makes early movements that could affect the absorption and vaccination policy in the United States, Kennedy has a long history of being skeptical of vaccine.
It also occurs in the middle of a particularly brutal flu season in the US CDC data. UU. It shows that the flu has caused up to an estimate of 910,000 hospitalizations since October, which launches the season as the most severe in at least a decade.
Earlier this month, a separate meeting of advisors were postponed that help the centers for the control and prevention of diseases to make recommendations for vaccines to “accommodate public comments before the meeting,” several media reported. Nor is it clear if that meeting will be rescheduled.
Kennedy also said last week that he will review the calendar of the children's vaccine despite the previous promises of not doing so. He promised that a new commission “Make America Healthy Again” would investigate vaccines, pesticides and antidepressants to see if they have contributed to an increase in chronic diseases in the United States.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is weighing funds for the modern avian flu vaccine, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The country is dealing with a record outbreak of aviar flu that affected dozens of livestock herds along with poultry flocks, which has sent the prices of shot eggs. Its rapid propagation in animals has generated concerns about the broader spread to humans. “
