CDC advisors launch workgroup to probe childhood vaccine schedule

ACIP ramps up its reform agenda, unveiling its 'Terms of Reference' for a workgroup to probe concerns about the timing, ingredients, and safety of an overcrowded childhood vaccine schedule.

After years of quiet routine, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is slowly ramping up its reform agenda on vaccines.

The committee has begun forming new workgroups to tackle some of the most sensitive issues in vaccine policy — from Covid shots to the expanding childhood schedule.

Its latest initiative, the Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule Workgroup, has released its Terms of Reference (TOR).

The TOR sets out plans to re-examine the timing, order, and overall safety of the childhood vaccine schedule, including cumulative exposure to ingredients such as aluminium.

The workgroup’s findings will guide future recommendations to the CDC — a notable step for an advisory body that has long treated the vaccine schedule as beyond question.