After 27 years, the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday revived a task force created by Congress focusing on the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines American children receive.
Senior leaders from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will serve on the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines.
According to an HHS news release, the Task Force, which will work alongside the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, will regularly offer recommendations that focus on “the development, promotion, and refinement of childhood vaccines that result in fewer and less serious adverse reactions than those vaccines currently on the market” and “improvements in vaccine development, production, distribution, and adverse reaction reporting — along with supporting research to make vaccines safer.”
"By reinstating this Task Force, we are reaffirming our commitment to rigorous science, continuous improvement, and the trust of American families," said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya of the task force, which was disbanded in 1998. "NIH is proud to lead this effort to advance vaccine safety and support innovation that protects children without compromise."
The first report will be handed over two Congress within two years, and updates will come every two years after that.
The move comes after Children’s Health Defense, a group founded by Kennedy, sued the HHS secretary in May for failing to establish the task force on childhood vaccine safety.