FDA meeting to pick next winter’s flu shot is canceled

Is this action the result of the  DOGE effect?  

Or is it a sign the FDA does not have faith in the future of influenza vaccines? This year's vaccine is ineffective. It is a variant of the Type A virus.  Has it already mutated? It requires about a year to produce a new vaccine type.  Are we a year behind in producing vaccines?

A meeting by a panel of science advisors to choose flu strains to include in a vaccine for next fall has been canceled on short notice, according to a member of the committee, raising concerns that new HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may already be influencing US policy on vaccinations.

Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s panel and a physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, confirmed to Endpoints News that the meeting by the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee had been canceled.

The session was expected to be held on March 13. The panel typically meets at the start of the year to give drugmakers the months necessary to ramp up production of tens of millions of vaccine doses.

During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy promised that he wouldn’t take steps to interfere in vaccine policy or discourage people from using vaccines, but said he would undertake a study of vaccine safety. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had any role in Wednesday’s meeting cancellation, or exactly where the decision originated.

A spokesperson for HHS confirmed in a statement to Endpoints on Thursday that the meeting is canceled but that “the FDA will make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 influenza season.”

Kennedy’s ascension has raised fears that his tenure might lead to declines in vaccine uptake, leading to the reemergence of preventable infectious diseases. Those concerns were driven home by Wednesday’s death of a Texas child who was infected with measles in an ongoing outbreak in the state. The child has not been vaccinated against measles, according to the state.

The final process for picking flu shot strains is a global one. Health bodies from around the world give advice and expertise to try and pick the strains that are most likely to circulate in the next season, which takes place in the fall and winter for the northern hemisphere.

Sanofi, one of the major flu vaccine makers, said in a statement to Endpoints that it would “work with multiple health agencies and national regulatory authorities and will continue to play our part in providing the most timely and best available protection against influenza and its complications inside and outside the US.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from HHS and Sanofi, as well as additional details.

AUTHOR

FDA meeting to pick next winter’s flu shot is canceled