((Translation automated by Reuters, please consult the non-responsibility clause https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))))
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Ms. Archer, collaborator of Kennedy, criticized vaccines on social networks
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Archer requests more data on the effectiveness of the VRS vaccine
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Kennedy examines the recommendations of the APIP without the CDC director
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Pfizer and GSK assigned by a potential decision on the recommendations of the ACIP
(Adding details on the VRS vaccine in paragraph 10) by Dan Levine and Leah Douglas
A collaborator of the American Minister of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is looking to obtain more information on three vaccines recommended by a group of external experts last month, according to documents examined by Reuters and two sources familiar with the situation.
The advisory group of disease control and prevention centers has made recommendations concerning the use of approved separate vaccines to help protect against VRS, meningitis and chikungunya. The CDC is not required to adopt these recommendations, but when it does, they become guidelines that medical practitioners must follow.
Dr. William “Reyn” Archer III joined the Department of Health and Social Services, which oversees the CDC, as an advisor to the office of the Secretary of State after the entry of Mr. Kennedy in February, according to the files of the Department of Health and Social Services. Criticism of vaccines on social networks for several years, Mr. Archer was a health commissioner of the Texas State in the late 1990s.
The hiring and activity of Mr. Archer within the HHS have not been the subject of a prior report. Its role in examining the recommendations of the advisory committee on vaccination practices is the last indication of how Mr. Kennedy, who has spent decades to issue doubts about the security and efficiency of vaccines, is in the process of reshaping American policy.
Andrew Nixon, HHS spokesperson, said that the agency “will ensure that all recommendations comply with science stallion”
As part of his role within the HHS, Mr. Archer has asked CDC questions in recent days on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee, according to documents and both sources.
One of the recommendations would expand eligibility for VRS vaccines made by Pfizer PFE.N and GSK GSK.L to adults at high risk aged 50 to 59, while the current threshold is at least 60 years.
In response, Mr. Archer asked for a better justification for the extension, given what he described as a “possible drop in efficiency with a second dose”, according to documents and two sources.
-During the APIP meeting, a GSK representative presented the results of clinical trials which, according to the company, show “robust” immune responses after a new vaccination.
However, antibody rates have not exceeded those of the first dose, as is often the case with other vaccines. The Ministry of Health and Social Services did not specify which data had prompted Mr. Archer to question the effectiveness of the second dose.
A GSK spokesperson said the data showed a decrease in the effectiveness of a single dose over time, but not enough to justify a new vaccination. A Pfizer spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The AIPI also voted in favor of an extended use of the GSK vaccine against meningitis, and Mr. Archer wondered about how providers administer it.
In addition, the ACIP has recommended the use of a new vaccine against chikungunya of Bavarian Nordic Bava.co, which Mr. Archer did not dispute. However, Kennedy’s assistant has requested more information on a recommendation to extend the use of a virus vaccine transmitted by mosquitoes made by Valneva vls.pa, according to documents.
Ms. Archer also asked to know the adjuvants and platforms used for all the vaccines examined at the ACIP meeting, as well as the duration of immunity.
From Texas to Washington
Mr. Kennedy is currently examining the latest recommendations in the AIPI in the absence of a CDC director, and it is not certain that the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs approves them as a last resort.
The decision will have an impact on public health and large pharmaceutical companies. Last month, Pfizer and GSK welcomed the APIP vote in favor of lowering the age at which adults can claim their respective vaccines against the VRS, a decisions which have an impact on the possible management of these vaccines by insurers. The FDA had already approved age extension.
Kennedy says that he is not opposed to vaccination, but that it is a personal choice, while a vast epidemic of measles has declared himself in the United States (), mainly among people who have not been vaccinated. Kennedy maintains that national health bureaucracy should focus on chronic diseases.
Mr. Archer was an obstetrician by training who occupied, in the early 1990s, the post of deputy secretary of the Ministry of Health under the administration of George HW Bush. In this position, he contributed to the implementation of a so -called “gag” rule, preventing medical providers from clinics funded by the federal government to advise patients on abortion, according to court documents and press reports.
He was appointed by George W. Bush, then Governor of Texas, as commissioner of the Ministry of State of the State. He resigned in 2000 after a black administrator of the department secretly recorded him making comments on his race, according to a report by the Associated Press of the time.
Mr. Archer was then chief of staff to deputy Jeff Fletenberry du Nebraska from 2016 to 2022, depending on his Linkedin profile.
Fortenberry, who opposed the COVVI-19 vaccination mandates during his mandate, was then accused of having lied to the federal authorities about a campaign donation. The Ministry of Justice abandoned the accusations after the entry into the entrance to President Donald Trump in January.
On his personal Facebook page, Archer posted several times between 2020 and 2022 on the “limits” of the COVVIT vaccine, Reuters noted. In a message deleted on X, consulted with the Internet Archive, Archer said that as Texas Health Commissioner, he had undergone pressures to support vaccination mandates without “scientific counterfactual”
“My own son was suffering from autism in the first years of his life and committed suicide at the age of 16,” he said in this message, who referred to Trump’s campaign advertising criticizing the measles vaccine.
Mr. Kennedy has long defended the idea of a link between vaccines and autism, contrary to scientific evidence, and promised a study last month to determine the cause of this disease.
