NYS advises broader COVID shots as federal panel votes against combined measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccine for young children

A federal advisory panel said a combined vaccine that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox should no longer be offered for children under 4 on Thursday, as New York State health officials broke with federal agencies and announced their own broader guidelines for the updated COVID-19 shot.

The Northeast Public Health Collaborative will determine its own vaccine policies with the help of organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. Along with New York, the coalition includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City.

A similar collaborative was formed by California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in response to mistrust of vaccine decisions coming from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The announcement came as the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices spent the day debating issues surrounding some childhood vaccines. The panel decided the combined MMRV vaccine should not be offered to those under 4. Instead, children will get one MMR vaccine and another for varicella, or chickenpox.

The conflicting actions highlight an increasing divide in vaccination policies between Democratic-run states, including New York, and federal health agencies under Kennedy.

States started putting together their own guidelines last month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limited its authorization of the updated COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 and over and younger people with chronic health conditions.

Earlier this year, the CDC stopped recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women. The recommendations raised concerns among many public health experts and medical societies.

After the FDA action, Hochul signed an executive order designed to make it easier for all New Yorkers to access the updated COVID-19 vaccine at pharmacies.

"Vaccines remain one of the strongest tools we have to safeguard our families and our communities," Hochul said in a statement. "As Washington continues to launch its misguided attacks on science, New York is making it clear that every resident will have access to the COVID vaccine, no exceptions."

In an email, Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon responded: "Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies. ACIP remains the scientific body guiding immunization recommendations in this country, and HHS will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science, not the failed politics of the pandemic."

Members of the Northeast Public Health Collaborative agreed to follow guidelines that make the updated COVID-19 vaccine available to children but emphasized that those between 6 months and 23 months should be vaccinated, as well as kids between 2 years  and 18 years who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 due to living conditions and other factors. The recommendations also include adults 19 and over and people who are pregnant or were recently pregnant. All people 65 and over should get vaccinated, according to the coalition guidelines.

Childhood vaccine recommendations

ACIP uses the FDA’s assessment to help it craft guidance on vaccines. That panel's recommendations are also used to determine which vaccines are covered by insurance, though a health insurance industry group said this week major companies would cover  COVID-19 vaccines through the end of 2026.

The panel features members selected by Kennedy, who has been critical of vaccines. Infectious disease experts have expressed concern that some of the new members do not have a background in vaccine development and research and have spread misinformation about vaccine safety.

"This committee is not qualified and they have an agenda," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health, New York's largest health system. "They are slowly chipping away at people's rights to get vaccines. This is why all the medical societies are saying their recommendations can't be trusted."

Farber agreed with the guidelines released by the Northeast Health Collaborative, saying those are based on "evidence and not a predetermined agenda."

Outside of Walgreens in Shirley, Nick Harders said the federal government should be recommending the COVID-19 vaccine more broadly, but the choice to get the shot should ultimately be left to individuals.

Harders, 43 of Shirley, said while he voted for President Donald Trump, who picked Kennedy to spearhead HHS, he hopes federal health officials "will take the ideology out of it and figure out what's best for society."

He added: "You expect people in office to make these decisions without worrying about political fallout."

ACIP panel members said Thursday they changed the recommendations for the MMRV vaccine because studies showed children who received it were more likely to have a seizure caused by fever than those who took the MMR and varicella vaccines separately.

Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said while the data on febrile seizures is real, it's also "minute."

"This is seen in very few kids after given the single dose of MMRV," she said.

John Gilmore, of Long Beach, who heads the Autism Action Network, said he agreed with the ACIP decision.

"Exposing children to a greater risk of seizures to avoid an inconsequential infection like chickenpox doesn't strike me as meeting any kind of reasonable assessment of the comparative risks," he said.

On Friday, the ACIP panel is set to vote on changes to the Hepatitis B vaccine dose given at birth and discuss guidelines for the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Nachman said delaying the birth dose of Hepatitis B vaccine would be a mistake because the illness can be severe and cause cirrhosis of the liver.

"If a child gets Hepatitis B from mom at the time of delivery we never can fix that," she said. "There's no going back."

Newsday's Nicholas Grasso contributed to this report.

An earlier online version of this story misstated the state's recommendations for some young children.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.