Next Year’s Flu Shot in Danger After FDA Cancels Crucial Meeting

The Trump regime seems to be doing everything it can to give the seasonal flu a helping hand. The Food and Drug Administration has reportedly canceled a meeting next month meant to help decide the mix of influenza strains that should be included in next winter’s flu vaccine.

Earlier this week, the FDA emailed members of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) about the cancelled meeting, previously set to take place March 13, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Though other parties, including the World Health Organization, also play a part in deciding the composition of the seasonal flu shot, the FDA cancellation could potentially affect the release of next winter’s vaccine in the U.S. The decision comes amidst one of the worst flu seasons seen in the U.S. in many years.

The FDA and other federal health agencies routinely enlist groups of outside experts to weigh in on important topics, one of which is the VRBPAC. Typically, the group meets every February or March to discuss what next winter’s flu shots should look like. Because the seasonal flu mutates so quickly, our vaccines have to be updated every year to match the strains most likely to be circulating in the U.S. come wintertime. Pharmaceutical companies will typically produce flu vaccines based on the recommendations of the FDA and others.

Thankfully, the FDA isn’t solely responsible for picking what the seasonal flu vaccine will look like. This Friday, the WHO’s own advisory committee will meet to discuss the best composition for flu shots provided in the Northern Hemisphere. STAT News reported Monday that officials from the FDA and CDC will be attending this meeting, held in London.

The flu vaccine selection and production process is a time-sensitive one, however, given how many vaccines are needed to cover every American who wants one. So the postponement or outright cancellation of the FDA meeting might mean that U.S. health experts will have no real say in deciding the flu vaccine’s composition this time around. And it could very well delay vaccine production, according to Paul Offit, one of the current members of the VRBPAC.

“It’s a six-month production cycle,” Offit told The New York Times. “So one can only assume that we’re not picking flu strains this year.”

Despite the VRBPAC cancellation, the FDA says that next year’s flu shot will not be in peril.

“The FDA will make public its recommendations to manufacturers in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-2026 influenza season,” an FDA spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email. The agency, however, offered no details as to how its expected recommendations will now be crafted.

The FDA’s decision is the latest move to raise questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to ensuring safe and effective vaccines for Americans. Earlier this week, the federal government abruptly delayed an upcoming meeting by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which helps decide the scheduling and insurance coverage of vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary, is also looking to remove members of the ACIP if he believes they have conflicts of interest, Politico reported last week. RFK Jr. is a long-time anti-vaccination advocate who has repeatedly spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines for at least two decades, and he’s already started to implicitly question the value of today’s childhood vaccine schedule in his new role.

All of this vaccine-related turmoil is happening in the middle of the worst flu season documented in over a decade—a surge likely aided by relatively low vaccination rates this winter. Texas is also facing its worst outbreak of measles, another vaccine-preventable disease, in 30 years. These unusual outbreaks and surges could certainly become more common in a country that is now being steered by vaccine skeptics like RFK Jr. and others like him.