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Pediatricians say panel’s decision will create confusion and access issues, and condemn ‘parody of public health’

The entire US childhood vaccine schedule is now open for scrutiny, experts say, after government vaccine advisers took up discussions of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and their components and changed its recommendations on one crucial prevention.

Several of the vaccine advisers are longtime anti-vaccine activists, and they were all chosen by Donald Trump’s controversial health secretary Robert F. Kennedy after he fired the previous advisers in an unprecedented move to enact dramatic changes to US vaccination policy. Kennedy has been a frequent critic of vaccines.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations to the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who decides whether to change official policy. The recommendations also have sweeping effects on state-level policies and insurance coverage. Some states have laws based on recommendations made by the ACIP.