National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meetings

NVAC Meeting June 2-3, 2010

NVAC held their quarterly meeting earlier this month in Washington D.C. NVAC’s main purpose is to advise the director of the National Vaccine Program (NVP) on the promotion of immunization and preventing adverse reactions to vaccines. NVAC is compromised of seventeen members who are either physicians, scientists, researchers or members of parent organizations concerned with immunizations.

The main focus of the June meeting was the flu vaccine. NVAC heard presentations that both evaluated the response to last year’s H1N1 pandemic and provided information on the upcoming flu vaccine for the 2010-2011 flu season.

View the agenda.

Interesting take away messages from this meeting:

  • The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Medical Association (AMA) would like the public to know that the flu is a “serious and unpredictable” illness. Everyone needs to be vaccinated for the flu, especially to protect those that are susceptible to complications.
  • 171 million doses of the flu vaccine will be available for 2010-2011 flu season
    The CDC will be distributing the flu vaccine with their “new partners.” These partners include: retail stores, schools and new medical specialists. View the CDC and AMA slides.
  • The CDC shared its communication/marketing plan for the upcoming flu season.
  • During the Medical Countermeasure Review, Dr. George Korch called for more public-private partnerships between industry and government agencies, so that pharmaceutical companies will see vaccines as a lucrative product to manufacture.
  • Dr. Marie McCormick reported that there have been three conditions reported as adverse reactions to the H1N1 vaccine. These conditions are: Guillain-Barre’ syndrome (GBS), thrombocytopenia/idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (TP/ITP), and Bell’s palsy (BP). Dr. McCormick’s working group does not view these adverse reactions as strong signals and feels that these outcomes are extremely rare.
  • The Vaccine Safety Working Group discussed ways they will be addressing gaps in vaccine safety science. View their presentation.
  • During public comments both SafeMinds and the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) called for an independent public agency to be in charge of vaccine safety. Currently the CDC is in charge of both promotion and safety of immunizations which could be viewed as a conflict of interest.