A long-shuttered federal task force on childhood vaccine safety is being revived, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday.
The HHS has announced the reestablishment of the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, which was originally disbanded in 1998, with the aim of enhancing the safety and oversight of vaccines given to children in the United States.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health, has been named chairman. Susan Monarez, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Marty Makary, from the Food and Drug Administration, will also be part of the task force, according to HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon. Additional members will be announced at a later date.
Dr. Howard Koh from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health commented, “While safety in childhood vaccines is a universal concern, reestablishing this panel should be viewed in the light of recent HHS policies.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been criticized by public health experts for pursuing what they see as an anti-vaccine stance. Since taking office in February, he has reduced funding by $2 billion for a program assisting vulnerable children with vaccinations, minimized the necessity of measles vaccinations amid an epidemic, and cut $500 million from mRNA vaccine research contracts.
In June, Kennedy dismissed members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), who advise the CDC on vaccine administration, replacing them with individuals known for skepticism towards vaccines, particularly Covid vaccines. The committee, now led by Martin Kulldorff, plans to establish two work groups to examine the current child vaccination schedule and review vaccines not assessed in over seven years.
Initially formed in 1986 under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines aimed to address difficulties children faced from adverse vaccine reactions and manage the increasing litigation threats related to vaccine injuries.
A lawsuit filed in May claims Kennedy violated the 1986 act by failing to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer. The suit is funded by Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded. Mary Holland, the group’s CEO, praised Kennedy on Thursday for fulfilling his obligation.
“At last the Secretary is following the law on this critical issue. We are grateful,” Holland said in a statement on X.
The task force will work closely with the visory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, which provides recommendations to the HHS secretary about how to implement a national compensation program for childhood vaccine injuries. According to HHS, the groups will give regular advice about how to improve adverse reaction reporting and develop childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions.
Vaccine injuries are extremely rare, and the United States has robust systems for detecting adverse reactions, including the Vaccine verse Event Reporting System, Vaccine Safety Datalink and V-safe. Before vaccines ever reach the market, clinical trials look for safety concerns and pause if any major issues arise. Then independent advisory committees to the FDA and the CDC evaluate the safety data and issue recommendations about which vaccines to approve and who should get them.
But Kennedy has repeatedly said the federal government isn’t doing enough to monitor for vaccine side effects.
“At least once a week, he comes up with a new zinger seeking to discredit vaccines, and it’s very dangerous,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, a co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.
Hotez said it’s unclear why Kennedy would revive a task force on childhood vaccine safety, given that the current system has a proven track record of picking up on rare adverse events.
“What’s the point now, other than he’ll use it as a bully pulpit to push his MAHA, anti-vaccine agenda? That’s the worry,” Hotez said.
“Who’s he going to put on this committee?” he added. “Will it be like ACIP, where he starts to stack it with anti-vaccine activists?”
