PHOENIX (AZFamily) — An advisory panel voted against recommending the use of a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox in young children on Thursday.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices , newly picked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. , will also issue new guidance on COVID-19 boosters and whether to delay certain shots like hepatitis B, a vaccine newborns have been receiving for decades.

Here in Arizona, the timing couldn’t be worse. State records show MMR immunization rates dropped in nearly every county in Arizona since 2019 .

Issuing new recommendations could mean losing access to vaccines and possibly insurance coverage, which could drop vaccination rates even further. “You have falsely been called antivaxxers, but

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