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A controversial federal vaccine advisory committee has canceled a planned meeting next week, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday.
The cancellation of the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices came after the committee failed to make public – as required – the details of its planned agenda for next week’s sessions, which raised questions about whether the meeting could legally occur, Healthbeat reported Wednesday.
It also follows efforts by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups to have a federal court in Massachusetts stop the ACIP meeting, court records show. The medical groups, which are suing HHS over changes made in January to the childhood vaccination schedule, told the court it feared the group would take a vote at the meeting that would remove funding for certain vaccines for children who are from low-income families or lack adequate insurance.
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon would not elaborate on why next week’s meeting was canceled. “We will not hold the ACIP meeting later this month,” Nixon said in a brief statement Thursday. “Further information will be shared as available.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups, in court filings this week, said that they anticipated the ACIP would be voting at its February meeting to downgrade from “routine” to “non-routine” several vaccines that are no longer routinely recommended under the contested January vaccine schedule. Such a vote, the groups said, would cut off access to hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, influenza, and meningococcal vaccines to children who rely on the federal Vaccines for Children program to pay for their immunizations.
The medical groups noted to the court that although no agenda had been posted for the ACIP meeting, the committee Vice Chair Robert Malone had publicly written on his Substack about how “the ACIP will need to vote during their next meeting to approve language aligning the Congressionally mandated Vaccines for Children Program [VFC] with the new schedule.”
Lawyers for HHS on Wednesday countered that concerns the vaccines would be removed from the Vaccines for Children program were “purely speculative.” On Thursday they filed a notice with the court saying that the ACIP meeting, which had been scheduled for Feb. 25-27, had been “postponed” and that the committee would not be meeting in February.
The committee – which in its last meeting made significant changes to the childhood vaccine schedule – had not made public its agenda or other key details for the meeting next week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite federal requirements.
“Legally, I believe that HHS is in violation of federal law,” Lawrence Gostin, Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told Healthbeat on Wednesday. “But Secretary Kennedy has long been flouting federal law, especially when it comes to good governance, transparency and administrative practice.”
Officials from HHS and the CDC did not answer questions about why no meeting notice and agenda information had been posted in the Federal Register or on the ACIP’s website before Wednesday.
The committee – which last summer had all of its scientific advisers replaced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – has become a front line in the political, cultural, and scientific war over vaccines. During its last meeting, in December, Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician, called the committee “totally discredited” for seeking a briefing from a lawyer and vaccine critic with ties to Kennedy.
The late cancellation of the upcoming ACIP meeting is just the latest controversy for the group.
Federal advisory committees historically have been required to let the public know about their meeting agendas and other basic information at least 15 calendar days in advance of the meeting. In December, the Trump administration reduced the advance notice to at least seven calendar days before a meeting. Wednesday was seven days before the ACIP meeting date listed on the CDC website.
Federal rules require that the public be told – through a posting in the Federal Register – details such as the time and location of the meeting, how to attend electronically, and whether registration is required for attendance. The rules also called for the committee to post a summary of the agenda, topics to be discussed, and instructions for how to access meeting materials, as well as how the public can comment in writing or in person.
The only way a committee can give less than seven days of notice, the rules say, is “if the President determines this is necessary for reasons of national security, or if the head of an agency determines this is necessary due to exceptional circumstances,” with the reasons being included in the Federal Register meeting notice.
“These meetings are one of the few opportunities for the public to make their voices heard,” said Michaela Jackson, program director for prevention policy at the Hepatitis B Foundation. “When notice comes too late, people lose the chance to share their experiences and help shape policies that directly affect their health, their families, and their communities.”
Jackson said it takes significant research for stakeholders to prepare for ACIP meetings. “Contributors want to present the strongest evidence available to support our positions, but it is extremely difficult to craft meaningful or relevant comments when no agenda or list of topics is provided in advance.”
Gostin said the lack of required public notice for the ACIP meeting ran afoul of both the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. He said the public should care because it’s important to have thoughtful public input into government decisions – such as vaccine policy – that will impact people’s lives.
“Advance notice and comment are the hallmarks of transparency, good government, and democracy,” Gostin said. “Without advanced notice and an opportunity to comment, major stakeholders cannot weigh in and feel as though they are left in the dark, which they are.”
Alison Young is Healthbeat’s senior national reporter. You can reach her at ayoung@healthbeat.org or through the messaging app Signal at alisonyoungreports.48.
