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A controversial federal vaccine advisory committee, which is scheduled to meet next week to discuss Covid-19 vaccine injuries and Long Covid has set a Thursday deadline for the public to submit comments.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has disclosed few details about its agenda for the meetings on March 18-19 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The committee was supposed to meet last month, but cancelled its sessions amid an ongoing lawsuit and after failing to post agenda information, as required.
The formal notice for the March meeting published in the Federal Register says the committee’s agenda will include updates on the committee work groups and “discussions on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID and ACIP recommendation methodology. Recommendation votes may be scheduled for COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID and ACIP recommendation methodology.”
No additional details were provided about these topics and the notice also says that the group’s agenda items “are subject to change as priorities dictate.” The ACIP meeting webpage also did not provide any additional details as of Monday morning.
The public can submit written comments online through the Federal Register meeting notice. Comments must be received by Thursday, the notice says.
The committee will also provide time for members of the public to make oral comments. The notice says: “Oral public comment will occur before any scheduled votes, including all votes relevant to the ACIP’s Affordable Care Act and Vaccines for Children Program roles.” Priority will be given those who file a request to speak at the meeting by Thursday. Details on how to make a request to speak at the meeting are found on the ACIP meeting webpage.
The committee, which meets three times a year, had all of its members replaced last summer by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and has come under fire from major medical professional associations that have said the reconstituted committee has been making changes to vaccine recommendations that lack scientific merit.
An ongoing lawsuit brought by American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups over the Trump administration’s vaccine changes has sought to stop ACIP’s next meeting because of concerns the committee will take a vote that will result in removing funding for certain vaccines for children from low-income families or who lack adequate insurance. Several state attorneys general are also suing HHS over recent changes to the childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule.
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.
