The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee is set to meet on March 18-19, an update on the agency's website showed on Tuesday, after its previously scheduled February meeting was canceled.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on who should receive which vaccines, was originally scheduled to meet from February 25 to 27, but a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman told Reuters it was canceled.
The move had deepened uncertainty around decisions by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has sought sweeping changes to the national vaccination policy, including dropping broad recommendations for six childhood shots and cutting funding for mRNA-based vaccine research.
The committee's recommendations have historically guided US health insurance coverage, state policies on school-required vaccines, and how physicians advise parents and patients. The panel faced multiple revamps last year, after Kennedy fired all 17 of its members in June.
Lawsuits against RFK policies
Several medical organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging policies adopted under Kennedy that they say would lower vaccination rates.
Earlier this month, major US medical groups asked a federal judge to block the administration from implementing new guidance that cuts the number of vaccines routinely recommended for children and to bar Kennedy's handpicked vaccine advisory panel from holding its next meeting.