A US advisory panel, whose members were handpicked by vaccine-skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, recommended delaying key inoculations for children.
US parents can either give children a combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine or separate MMR and varicella (chickenpox) jabs; previously, the first dose for either was recommended between 12 and 15 months. The combined shot is associated with a 1-in-2,300 chance of seizures, which the panel said was reason to delay until age four.
The panel votes today on whether hepatitis B vaccines, given at birth to prevent infection via the mother, should be delayed for a month. Doctors told Politico that the changes are unsupported by evidence.
