New CDC Work Group to Study Aluminum in Childhood Vaccines

Following up on a promise made in June, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have established a formal working group to review the agency’s childhood vaccine schedule.

The Childhood and Adolescent Immunization Schedule Workgroup will examine the timing and order of recommended vaccines, the safety of simultaneously administering multiple shots and how the U.S. schedule compares to those in other countries.

The group, formed by members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), is also tasked with examining the safety of aluminum and other ingredients present in multiple vaccines, with a particular focus on the link between aluminum and asthma.

“When we come to terms with the full assault of the full schedule, it may be one of the most humbling moments of modern medicine,” said Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski.

“It is hugely important to look at the schedule as a whole,” internist Dr. Meryl Nass told The Defender. Nass said:

“Some vaccines may have interactions with each other, which have been mostly ignored. Booster doses may not always improve immunity but have sometimes been tacked on when earlier immunity fails. However, understanding the risk-benefit equation for each vaccine can be difficult, given that we live in a highly vaccinated society, which has affected the ecology/endemicity of the pathogens against which we vaccinate.”