May 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. health department has withdrawn an April charter renewal for a key vaccine advisory panel that laid out new membership rules and direction, citing an administrative error, according to a Federal Register notice issued on Monday.
The Department of Health and Human Services said the withdrawal was the result of not having met the timing requirements for such changes under federal law.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had issued a new charter for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine use in the country, on April 6.
The advisory panel had been a key piece of Kennedy’s broader effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy. Last year, he removed and replaced all 17 independent experts who previously served on the panel.
The new charter followed a March 16 decision by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy as part of a court case seeking to overturn some of Kennedy’s vaccine-related changes. The charter expanded the role of the panel to include a focus on vaccine risks, vaccine safety evidence and what qualified individuals for membership.
Murphy’s ruling had put a hold on the committee, saying its members did not qualify based on its own charter.
The Trump administration last month appealed the ruling, which blocked key changes under Kennedy’s leadership, including reducing the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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