(Washington) Experts recently appointed by Donald Trump’s health secretary and for many described will re -examine the vaccination recommendations made to the Americans on Thursday, arousing great concern in many scientists.
“The challenges are considerable,” alerts to AFP Syra Madad, epidemiologist, upstream of this meeting which will spread over two days and will relate to two infant vaccines as well as to vaccines against COVID-19.
Like her, many experts fear that this exam will lead to access restrictions, even though the country’s vaccination rates are going downwards from the pandemic and fear the return of deadly contagious diseases, such as measles.
Usually Routineiers, these meetings of the Consultative Committee on Vaccination Practices (APIP) which are held in Atlanta, in the south-east of the United States, have taken up new importance in recent months in a highly politicized context.
After having dismissed in June all of the experts in this group, the American secretary of health Robert Kennedy Jr (RFK JR), challenged for his antivaccini positions, appointed figures of his choice, mostly decried.
The latter have the responsibility of advising CDC, the country’s main health agency, on vaccination recommendations.
“Pre -established conclusions”
However, according to the former director of this agency, who was also dismissed with a crash in August, the recommendations to come would be based on “pre-established conclusions”.
Photo Brendan Smialowski, Agency France-Presse
Susan Monarerez, former director of Centers for the Control and Prevention of Diseases (CDC) of the United States
Questioned Wednesday by a senatorial commission on the reasons for his eviction, Susan Monarez explained that the secretary of health had asked him to commit to supporting a modification of the vaccination calendar.
“He had no data or scientific evidence in support” of this project, she assured parliamentarians by emphasizing the crucial role played by vaccines in public health policies.
“We fought so hard to defeat polio, measles, diphtheria and many other diseases. Returning to this progress would not only be irresponsible, but would betray all the families that trust us to protect their health, ”she also launched.
Questioned earlier on the subject, RFK JR had refuted any pressure.
These brutal changes, which were added to budget cuts and significant positions, have caused an important crisis in federal health agencies.
“Not the means”
Considering that the reliability of the latter was compromised, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and several West States of the United States have recently decided to publish their own vaccination recommendations.
Initiatives whose scope is limited, because the reimbursement of vaccines remains greatly linked to the recommendations issued by CDCs, on the advice of this famous panel of experts.
If the latter came this week to alleviate or cease the recommendation of vaccines against COVID-19, hepatitis B or even measles, many Americans would no longer have access to it, worries Wilbur Chen, infectiologist.
“Reality is that most people cannot afford these vaccines”, whose costs can rise to several hundred dollars, “he explains.
During their first meeting at the end of June, the experts of the freshly reshaped committee had already aroused criticism by promoting anti -vax theses.
Declarations which echoed the positions of the Secretary of Health RFK JR, which has been made years during the relay of false information on vaccines, in particular on an alleged link between the ROR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) and autism.
Speculation from a rigged study which has been repeatedly denied by later work.
