RFK Jr’s hand-picked CDC advisory panel recommends against combo vaccine for kids 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhauled vaccine panel voted on Thursday to no longer recommend a combination shot protecting against chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella for young children. 

In an 8-3 vote, with one member abstaining, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) decided against recommending the MMRV vaccine for children under the age of 4. 

The panel, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on which vaccines to recommend to the American public, said children younger than 4 should instead be immunized for varicella (the virus that causes chickenpox) separately from a combined shot for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). 

Concerns over the rare risk of fever-induced seizures related to MMRV vaccines were brought up by some members of the panel. 

Committee member Dr. Cody Meissner, who voted to continue recommending the MMRV vaccine for young children, described so-called “febrile seizures” as “a very frightening experience” for parents during the ACIP meeting. 

In 2009, the panel considered data related to seizure risks and the MMRV vaccine and determined that either a combination shot or separate MMR and chickenpox shots were acceptable for the first dose – but separate doses were preferable. 

Information presented during Thursday’s meeting showed that the vast majority of parents (85%) already opt to give their children separate shots for the first dose. 

A follow-up vote on whether to extend the new and more restrictive recommendation to the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, which provides low-income families access to shots, led to some confusion. 

“If we vote no on this, we’re essentially saying there will be different recommendations for children who get the vaccine through VFC, compared to children who do not,” Meissner said, according to CNN. 

The panel ended up voting against changing the previous MMRV recommendation for VFC, in another 8-3 vote. 

ACIP delayed a vote on whether to recommend against hepatitis B vaccines for newborns when the mother is not infected with the disease, until Friday. 

“This is an absolutely safe vaccine,” Meissner said of the hepatitis B shot. “I’m not sure what we’re gaining by avoiding that first dose within 12 to 24 hours after birth.”

ACIP member Vicky Pebsworth, who is the research director of the National Vaccine Information Center (described by some as an “anti-vax outfit”), questioned whether the science on hepatitis B shots has been settled.

“The conclusion that we know that it is safe is perhaps premature,” Pebsworth said, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The panel’s recommendations must be signed off by CDC acting director Jim O’Neill before they become final. 

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that it would “examine all insurance coverage implications” before accepting ACIP’s recommendations. 

Insurers traditionally lean on ACIP recommendations to decide which vaccines to cover at no cost to patients. The panel has also historically guided immunizations that states recommend.

America’s Health Insurance Plans, a national trade association representing insurers, said earlier this week that it would “continue to cover all ACIP-recommended immunizations that were recommended as of September 1, 2025, including updated formulations of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, with no cost-sharing for patients through the end of 2026.”

Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccines, ousted all 17 members of ACIP earlier this year, and replaced them with his own picks, in what he described as “a clean sweep” needed to “re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

Former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who was fired by Kennedy last month, told senators on Wednesday that she was axed for refusing to blindly rubber-stamp ACIP recommendations.

“He [Kennedy] directed me to commit in advance to approving every ACIP recommendation, regardless of the scientific evidence,” Monarez told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

“I refused to do it,” she added, “because I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access to lifesaving vaccines to children and others who need them.”

Kennedy has flatly denied Monarez’s claim.

With Post wires