Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Healthcare Dive, in “CDC Panel to Discuss COVID, Hepatitis B Shots in September Meeting,” by Delilah Alvarado.
Following is an excerpt:
A federal vaccine panel recently remade by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will meet in September to discuss and potentially vote on recommendations for vaccines against COVID-19, hepatitis B and measles.
According to a federal notice posted Thursday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet Sept. 18 and 19. A detailed agenda is not yet available, but the notice mentions that vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus may also be discussed.
The anticipated meeting will be the second by the reconstituted ACIP since Kennedy fired all 17 of its prior members and replaced them with seven hand-picked advisers. In the first, the new panelists appeared skeptical of evidence supporting COVID shots’ safety and efficacy, and debated a controversial preservative that’s long been a target of vaccine skeptics despite data showing it to be generally safe.
Since then, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken further steps to limit the availability of COVID vaccines, moving to revoke emergency authorizations that enabled wider groups of people, especially children, to access the shots. The Food and Drug Administration, which he oversees, also narrowed eligibility for the vaccines in approving boosters reformulated to targeting a circulating coronavirus strain.
Vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are broadly approved for adults 65 years and over, but only available to younger adults who are considered to be at high risk from COVID.
In an email to clients Wednesday, Richard Hughes, a partner at the law firm Epstein Becker Green, said the limited clearances could mean that adults aged 18 through 64 years “will now need to show some proof of an underlying condition in order to be vaccinated.”
