FDA Cancels Meeting Slated to Select Strains for Next Flu Vaccines

The cancellation followed a postponement of another vaccine meeting.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in White Oak, Md., on June 5, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

U.S. officials have canceled a meeting that was slated to go over the options for the 2025–26 influenza vaccines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been scheduled to meet on March 13 with its vaccine advisers to consider which strains the vaccines should target before the meeting was canceled.

The FDA and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), confirmed the cancellation on Feb 27.

Dr. Anna Durbin, one of the members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, said the cancellation was concerning.

“It will affect the ability of manufacturers to produce the influenza vaccine for 2025–2026 flu season. The schedule is already very tight and delaying the strain selection meeting will only make it more difficult,” Durbin told The Epoch Times in an email.

Health officials said the strain selection would still happen.

“The FDA will make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025–2026 influenza season,” spokespersons for the FDA and HHS told The Epoch Times via email.

The spokespersons declined to say why the government had opted against hearing from its advisers.

Advisers typically give their recommendations on which strains to target to the FDA in the spring. The FDA considers the advice and then issues recommendations months ahead of the flu season, which covers the fall and winter of each year.

The U.S. government also often hears from World Health Organization (WHO) officials on the matter.

WHO is set to meet on Friday to discuss the subject. A spokesperson for the organization declined to confirm whether any U.S. officials are on the list to attend.

President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from WHO in January.

Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 13.

Kennedy told HHS workers in his first address to them that nothing would be off-limits as he led investigations into children’s health, identifying vaccinations as possible factors behind the rise in chronic diseases.

Kennedy has voiced concerns about vaccines over the years, including saying that the influenza vaccines do not appear to prevent hospitalizations or deaths.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another HHS component, estimates that the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine against hospitalization has ranged from 19 percent to 60 percent in recent years.

The CDC earlier in February postponed a meeting that was slated to go over vaccine recommendations. The agency had been scheduled to hear advice from its vaccine advisory committee.

It’s not clear when that meeting will happen.