The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has abruptly cancelled a vaccine advisory meeting where members were slated to discuss influenza vaccine strains.
The meeting was scheduled for March 13. Committee members received an email informing them of the cancellation on Wednesday afternoon with no rescheduling information and no reason given for the cancellation, committee member Paul Offit confirmed.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets every March to determine which flu strains should be targeted, in order to give companies time to update their vaccines ahead of the upcoming flu season.
If HHS doesn’t make any flu strain recommendations, companies will likely have to rely on those made by a World Health Organization (WHO)-led panel, which is meeting this week. Despite President Trump intending to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO, the CDC is still reportedly participating in the meeting.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees FDA, did not immediately comment.
The FDA panel’s recommendations are heavily influenced by the WHO, and often largely adopts the WHO’s recommendations without changes.
The cancellation of the FDA meeting, alongside a similar postponement last week of a meeting of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisors, is adding to the growing concern among scientists and public health advocates that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is using his position to interfere with the vaccine approval process and sow doubts about their safety and effectiveness.
Kennedy has said he thinks the country’s top health regulatory agencies are held captive by corporate interests, including pharmaceutical companies. He has pledged to root out conflicts of interest across the agency he now leads, particularly among members of scientific advisory panels.
Flu shots are not always a perfect match for the strain that becomes dominant in the fall and winter, so the effectiveness can vary. Still, public health experts say getting vaccinated can reduce the severity of the flu.
To date, 86 children and 19,000 adults have died from the virus this flu season, according to the CDC.
