A key vaccine advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to change its recommendations around certain childhood immunizations Thursday, despite the CDC’s own data showing that the vaccines are safe and effective.

The panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is charged with setting national guidelines around which people should be vaccinated against a wide range of preventable diseases and when those vaccines should be administered. The recommendations also play a key role in determining which vaccines are covered by insurance companies and how accessible immunizations are for the general public.

All 12 current members of the committee were recently appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abruptly dismissed the pan

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