Trump administration cancels meeting on flu shots, fueling anti-vax concerns

The Trump administration has cancelled a meeting of scientific experts called to discuss next winter’s flu shots in a move that has underscored fears of emerging anti-vaccine polices under the new health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which Kennedy oversees, notified members of its vaccines and related biological products advisory committee on Thursday that the next meeting scheduled for 13 March was cancelled without providing an explanation.

No new date was set for a meeting and scientists warned that the cancellation risked undermining the development of flu vaccines for next year.

The committee was due to discuss the development of appropriate vaccine for combatting expected prevalent influenza strains next year, using data provided by the World Health Organization, from which the US recently withdrew, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Committee members were given no advance notice that the meeting, which is held in late February or late March every year, was to be called off.

“We’re all left trying to understand what is going on. Why was this meeting cancelled? It’s an important meeting. What’s the plan for flu vaccines this year,” Paul Offit, a committee member and director of the vaccine education centre at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS.

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Source: The Guardian, 27 February 2025