Expert calls CDC advisory panel in ‘kangaroo court’

One of the nation’s leading public health experts has criticized the CDC’s largest advisory committee for approving Covid-boosting injections for five-year-olds, just as leading injection maker Pfizer has announced plans to require injections. week.

Dr. Marty Makary, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMaill.com that the Vaccine Applications Advisory Committee (ACIP) is a “kangaroo court” filled with nothing but like-minded individuals. value concern'”.

He also said they had never seen a vaccine they would never approve of, and those who had previously opposed pro-jab dogma were forced to leave the panel.

The committee that oversees vaccine decision-making at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consists of external consultants from universities and research institutes around the country. Its counterpart at the Food and Drug Administration, the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products (VRBPAC), was called in to decide whether children needed additional vaccines, even without it.

This is the second consecutive decision that VRBPAC did not convene, with the committee that was also approved when Makary announced it was made up of the nation’s top experts and the FDA approved the fourth injection for Americans aged 50 and over.

Makary notes that many members of the VRBPAC, including Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Paul Offit, and Dr Eric Rubin, would likely vote no to either decision if asked based on their previous statements and their own consent. .

This criticism comes when another low-risk group can be added to the vaccine rotation, and Pfizer Monday reveals data showing that the three-dose regimen for children aged six months to four years is 80% effective in preventing Omicron infection. . This will likely lead to the official filing of the jab approval application in the next few days.

Dr. Marty Makary (pictured) described the CDC advisory board that signed the approval of the vaccines as a “kangaroo court” that had never seen a vaccine it would never approve.

Last week, the FDA gave the green light to all U.S. children ages five to 11 for COVID-19 booster vaccines. Unlike previous decisions, VRBPAC was not consulted on the decision. The ACIP met on Thursday, and all but one panel member approved the distribution of the extra footage.

Makary described the ACIP panel as “the biggest slap at science we’ve seen during the pandemic” and added that “the logic is … flawed” before it was approved.

CDC director Dr. She notes that Rochelle Walensky has stated multiple times last week that Covid cases are on the rise among the country’s youth, but previous research by the agency has shown that three out of four American children are already infected. that they already have natural immunity to the virus.

The level of risk among Covid children is also extremely low, with the agency reporting that minors accounted for just over 1,000 of the more than one million deaths the country has suffered in the past two years, or about 0.1% of deaths due to the pandemic. population, total deaths.

The Johns Hopkins expert, who is also the best-selling author of pancreatic surgeon, said Pfizer’s research trial did not include enough participants and only recruited 140. In contrast, more than 43,000 participants took part in approval trials for the original COVID-19 vaccine regimen approved in 2020.

Part of ACIP approval included providing a “consistent message” to Americans and making it easier for all age groups to receive vaccines and boosters. That means there’s no clinical or scientific reason for it, Makary said.

“I’ve never heard of a simplified marketing message being a factor in strongly recommending something,” he said.

The final red flag was skipping VRBPAC for the second time. The committee is made up of the nation’s leading vaccine experts, and many members do not hesitate to publicly oppose FDA and CDC decisions.

When the fourth dose was approved for the fourth dose, three people openly opposed the decision.

Dr. Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and a member of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), who often recommends these resolutions, said he hadn’t seen enough last month. data to make the necessary shots.

“The only thing I’ve seen is about the participants being followed for just a few weeks,” Rubin said. CNN last month

“The most important piece of information will be how much the fourth dose protects very vulnerable people from serious illness and death, and I don’t know when it will be available.”

Dr. Paul Offit, who is also a member of VRBPAC and director of the vaccination education center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, was critical of the introduction of the first booster dose and also opposed this approval.

‘Where is the evidence that anyone over 50 benefits from a fourth dose? Because the evidence so far seems to support the possibility of over 65, whether or not we’ve seen all the data… but where is the evidence for a 50-64 year old? Where is that evidence? Because without this evidence, this advice shouldn’t be there,” he said.

Tufts Children’s Hospital pediatrician and VRBPAC member Dr. Cody Meissner isn’t sure the virus poses enough risk to require a fourth injection at this point.

Offit and Meissner are also openly critical of vaccinating young children at low risk of contracting the virus. Her ex said earlier this year that she wouldn’t take a boost for her 17-year-old son and would advise her not to give her 20-year-old son another chance.

Meissner told the Daily Mail in February: “I think we’re rethinking how we look at this question because even if people are properly vaccinated, they can still be infected and transmit the virus to people who are susceptible to them.

“So this is a bit different from many other infectious diseases like measles, mumps or rubella. If you are protected against infection with the vaccine, you won’t be able to pass it on to others.

“But not the same setting” [this virus]†

Experts may finally have a chance to voice their opinion on the matter next month, the FDA has announced that the Modern COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to 18 years old and Pfizer. five. †

The warning was to follow up on a new report from Pfizer, which showed that its vaccine, a joint project with German company BioNTech, was 80% effective in preventing Omicron variant infection in infants aged six months and five years.

Unlike previous versions of the injection, the regimen for this age group is available in three doses. The injections are also only three micrograms (mg) in size, one-tenth of the 30mg injection dose for adults.

The New York City-based pharmaceutical giant had originally planned to give only two doses to the youngest of Americans, but preliminary results late last year showed that the first two doses had little effect on people’s immunity to the virus. four years.

This vaccine controversy comes at a time when cases are rising again, but the overall death rate from the virus is declining.

America has an average of 113,713 cases per day, and it recently surpassed 100,000 cases per day for the first time since February. However, the death toll from the virus fell seven percent per day to 348.