The group of outside experts will also consider shot ingredients like aluminum, as well as the timing and order of vaccines, according to a document posted on the agency’s website.
The CDC’s vaccine advisers will review the safety and efficacy of the childhood vaccine schedule, including the timing of shots given to kids and possible risks associated with common vaccine ingredients, according to a document posted Thursday to the agency’s website.
A work group within the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will gather information as part of a “multi-year effort” to inform future recommendations on a raft of issues that vaccine skeptics — including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have floated as possible drivers of chronic and neurodevelopmental conditions like autism despite ample research refuting most of their claims.
The document’s release comes three weeks after President Donald Trump said his administration was in the process of removing aluminum from vaccines during a speech where he suggested the current childhood vaccine schedule could be tied to autism.
During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump called for shots to be given “in smaller doses” to young children, claiming they’re double the size of a glass of water while adding that he’s “a vaccine believer.”
Citing Trump’s comments, Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill also called on vaccine manufacturers to develop “safe monovalent vaccines to replace the combined MMR.”
The work group study topics include the timing and order of vaccinations; concurrent administration of different shots; the safety of ingredients used in multiple products; and the safety and efficacy of vaccine schedules used in other countries that differ from that of the U.S., according to the document outlining the “terms of reference” for the research.
The plan outlines an opportunity for ACIP to review — and potentially change — recommendations related to shots containing aluminum, an ingredient that helps boost the body’s immune response. Anti-vaccine activists have long blamed aluminum for rising cases of autism and chronic conditions like allergies despite substantial evidence refuting a link.
“The rationale for this [work group] includes considerations such as the use of new vaccine technologies and ingredients, and the rise of vaccine hesitancy,” the document states in an apparent reference to messenger RNA technology used in Covid-19 vaccines. “These activities should not only be based on past research but also future vaccine studies. If such studies reveal unexpected but scientifically validated concerns, the schedule should be adjusted accordingly.”
The work group will also weigh “implementation considerations,” it said, such as the burden on health care systems and the feasibility of any changes. It will also consider how those issues affect “subgroups of children, such as children born pre-maturely, children with immune deficiencies, or children with cancer,” and members will collaborate with “external subject matter experts, as needed.”
ACIP has several work groups, which review data on vaccines and develop possible recommendations for the panel to vote on. Kennedy, in June, fired all the members of the panel and replaced them with his own, more vaccine-skeptical picks.
Public health experts have anticipated efforts by the administration to question the safety and necessity of the current childhood vaccine schedule.
“I could see them focusing on specific ingredients — it used to be thimerosal, now I’m concerned that we’re looking at things like aluminum adjuvants, [for] which we don’t have any evidence of harm,” Jessica Steier, public health expert who focuses on science communication, said last month.
The CDC document says the work group will examine “safety of ingredients that are present in multiple different vaccines.”
“For example, do either of the two different aluminum adjuvants increase the risk of asthma?” it states.
Nearly half the shots recommended for children contain aluminum salts. Their use means fewer doses and amounts of vaccine are needed to offer protection, and they can’t easily be stripped from vaccine formulations.
A 2022 observational study by researchers from Kaiser Permanente and the CDC found a possible association between aluminum exposure from vaccines and persistent asthma.
However, the study authors cautioned that the effect size was small and that there were limitations to their study approach, such as being unable to assess hereditary predisposition to asthma, contact with secondhand smoke and other factors that could influence the results.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine inventor and vocal Kennedy critic, told POLITICO earlier this year that thousands of studies are published each day in the scientific literature, making it easy to find a paper that supports a theory, even if the preponderance of studies does not.
“I just think science is losing its place as a source of truth,” he said.
The CDC has cited the observational study on its webpage about vaccine adjuvants and encouraged “further investigation” into the potential signal while declining to change vaccine recommendations on one paper.
Meanwhile, a study of more than 1 million Danish children published in July found no association between aluminum exposure from vaccines during a child’s first two years of life and increased risk for dozens of chronic conditions ranging from autoimmune to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD.
Kennedy blasted the study, claiming the authors skewed its design and calling for its retraction.
According to the document, the work group will compare the safety and efficacy of vaccine schedules used in other countries. “For example, are there differences in efficacy or safety between the U.S. and Danish childhood vaccine schedules?” it states.