Folder photo: The headquarters of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seen in Silver Spring, Maryland on November 4, 2009.
Jason Reed | Reuters
A crucial meeting in March of vaccination advisers at Food and Drug Administration was canceled without explanation, a member of the CNBC Advisory Committee said on Wednesday.
The meeting of the advisory committee of related vaccines and organic products, or VRBPAC, takes place every March to select the flu stumps for shooting published in the fall and winter to come.
But Dr. Paul Offer, a member of this panel, told CNBC that he had received an email at 4:18 p.m. Wednesday saying that the next meeting on March 13 was canceled. He said that there was no indication to know if he would be reprogrammed.
“Who canceled this meeting? Why have they canceled the meeting? Will manufacturers now turn to the World Health Organization to determine the stumps of this year’s flu vaccines?” Offer told CNBC.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The canceled meeting comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now leading HHS, takes early movements that could affect absorption and vaccination policy in the United States, Kennedy has a long period of vaccination skeptic.
It also occurs in the middle of a particularly brutal influenza season in the American CDC data shows that the flu has caused up to 910,000 hospitalizations since October, which has been putting the season on the right track to be the most serious for at least a decade.
Earlier this month, a distinct meeting of advisers who help Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make recommendations for vaccines were postponed to “adapt to public comments before the meeting,” several media reported. It is also not known if this meeting will be postponed.
Kennedy also declared last week that he would examine the calendar of infant vaccines despite previous commitments not to do so. He promised that a new commission “Make America Healthy Again” would investigate vaccines, pesticides and antidepressants to see if they have contributed to the rise of chronic disease in the United States
Meanwhile, the Trump administration weighs the firing financing for the Moderna bird flu vaccine, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The country is struggling with an influenza epidemic of record birds which had an impact on dozens of herds of cattle as well as herds of poultry, which raised the prices of the eggs. Its rapid propagation in animals has raised concerns concerning broader propagation to humans. “”