RFK Jr.'s advisory panel recommends new restrictions on MMRV vaccines

RFK Jr. grilled by Sen. Warren on vaccines

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had a heated exchange during RFK's appearance before the Senate Finance Committee. He is facing questions about COVID-19 and ousted CDC director Susan Monarez.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee on Thursday recommended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopt new restrictions on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox as well as measles, mumps and rubella.

The panel advised that the vaccine known as MMRV not be given before age 4 and that children in this age group instead get separate vaccines — one against MMR and another for varicella, or chickenpox. The vote was 8-3, with one member abstaining.

Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several vaccine skeptics. On Monday, HHS announced the addition of five more people, some of whom have voiced antivaccine views in the past. 

FILE - Vaccines including varicella, hepatitus A, prevnar and measles, mumps and rubella at Lurie Children's Primary Care Town & Country Pediatrics on Oct. 18, 2022, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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What's next:

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices put off an expected vote on hepatitis B shots given to infants on the day they are born. On Friday — when it also takes up COVID-19 shots — it’s expected to decide whether to recommend that some babies can wait a month for those shots.

What do doctors say? 

What they're saying:

Some doctors and public health experts worry that the panel is raising unwarranted new questions about vaccines in the minds of parents, and that it may limit the ability of families to get their children protected.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and most public health officials support hepatitis B shots for babies. They say liver disease among children has dropped significantly in the decades since the practice started. 

RELATED: Ex-CDC chief warns senators that RFK Jr. is endangering public health

"I don’t understand the rationale of why we would stop providing that vaccine and that guidance to babies when we’ve seen such great progress in that area," Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health department director in Columbus, Ohio, told The Associated Press. "If it’s not broken, why change it?"

Roberts was supposed to be on the vaccine panel, but Kennedy dismissed her earlier this year.