ATLANTA — The newly formed vaccine advisory committee handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that it would examine the cumulative effect of the childhood vaccine schedule and reevaluate hepatitis B immunization recommendations — moves that could shift long-standing practices of how and when children are immunized in the United States.
Kennedy, who previously founded an anti-vaccine group, has long called for an investigation into the number of shots children receive. Medical experts say Kennedy has falsely linked an increase in vaccines to a rise of chronic disease, but they note that more vaccines are available now to combat diseases and that his link has no basis in evidence. Medical experts and the federal government recommend the hepatitis B vaccine, saying it prevents the liver disease, which can be passed along at birth.
The announcement of the review of immunization schedules came during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on which vaccines should be recommended, for whom and whether they will be covered by health insurance.
