JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The Food and Drug Administration has canceled an important upcoming meeting about vaccines. The surprise decision is intensifying concerns about the Trump administration's approach to vaccines here in the United States. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein joins us now. And Rob, I want to start with this meeting. Tell us who was supposed to meet, and why?
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: This is a committee of independent, outside experts that advises the FDA about vaccines of all kinds, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. People might remember this committee from the pandemic. This was the committee that reviewed all the COVID-19 vaccines for the FDA. It was supposed to meet March 13 to review the latest data about several vaccines and, most importantly, make a key decision about next season's flu vaccines.
SUMMERS: Well, tell us about that. What exactly was the committee supposed to decide about the flu vaccines?
STEIN: The committee planned to make a recommendation on the composition of the next flu vaccines - which strains of the flu virus to target in the vaccines to try to make the shots as effective as possible. The experts review all the latest data about which strains are circulating and make their best guess about which are most likely to be spreading next fall and winter to get the best possible match. This is something that happens every year around this time, and the timing is crucial because it takes months to produce enough vaccine. So the process has to start early or else the vaccine will be too late to protect people.
SUMMERS: OK. And if there's a long-standing order of operations here and vaccine production is reliant on this decision, I would imagine that this meeting being canceled is not going over particularly well in the scientific community.
STEIN: No, no. The cancellation of this advisory meeting is raising a lot of concerns among infectious disease experts, public health advocates and others. I talked with Dr. Paul Offit. He's a vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania who's been on the committee for years.
PAUL OFFIT: Well, it's disappointing that they canceled this advisory committee meeting. We have met every March for the last decade and longer. I think there's a value in having an independent committee that looks at the data, holds it to a very high standard. That's a process that makes sure that we can have the best science behind the decisions we make.
STEIN: He worries that next season's flu vaccines may not be ready in time or may not be the best match. And this development comes on the heels of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention canceling a similar meeting.
SUMMERS: Also as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking charge of the Health and Human Services Department.
STEIN: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the HHS oversees both the FDA and CDC, and Kennedy is an outspoken critic of vaccines. And he's also criticized these committees specifically. During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy argued he was supportive of vaccines, but he didn't really renounce any of the previous false claims he'd made about them. Dr. William Schaffner is an infectious disease doctor at Vanderbilt University.
WILLIAM SCHAFFNER: All of us have concerns about vaccine policy going forward, and the more we conform to the routine way of doing things, the more reassured we will be that vaccines will continue to be available as they should be to the American public.
STEIN: He points out that the U.S. is in the midst of one of the worst flu seasons in years, and vaccination rates are down. And a big outbreak of measles - a disease that has come back because not enough parents are getting their kids vaccinated - has already claimed the life of one child in Texas.
SUMMERS: Well, Rob, what is HHS saying about the shot for next flu season?
STEIN: The Health and Human Services Department is promising the FDA will make a decision about the next flu vaccine composition in time to make sure the shots are ready, and a federal official who was not authorized to speak publicly told me the FDA would consult with the CDC, vaccine companies and others to make that decision.
SUMMERS: NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thank you.
STEIN: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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