The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting on Tuesday, December 1st starting at noon to review, discuss and perhaps make a recommendations about how to prioritize initial supplies of the various SARS CoV2 vaccines.
Here’s the Meeting Agenda which includes: 1) a presentation of the proposed allocation of initial supplies of COVID-19 vaccine; 2) a discussion of clinical considerations for populations included in Tier 1; and 3) a post-authorization safety monitoring update.
A discussion follows those presentations with a vote on the ACIP’s recommendation. Here’s the link to the Webcast, which does not require pre-registration.
ACIP recommendations carry a lot of weight in the medical and public health communities and are often adopted by clinicians and public health as-is. The recommendations usually include the ages when the vaccine should be given, the number of doses needed, the amount of time between doses, and precautions and contraindications. It’s unclear whether Tuesday’s meeting will issue those kinds of recommendations. Those might come at a meeting later in December.
ACIP recommendations are also often used to drive decisions by health insurers with respect to reimbursement and other policies.
Note that ACIP recommendations aren’t the same as FDA authorization or approval. FDA will be holding advisory committee meetings on December 10 (for the Pfizer vaccine candidate) and December 17 (for Moderna). At those meetings, the Committee will discuss those vaccines and decide whether to recommend emergency use authorization of those vaccines. It’s possible that the FDA advisory committee will recommend Emergency Use Authorization of those vaccines during their meeting. At that point, FDA Commissioner Hahn could make a final decision about EUA. If he decides to authorize, then delivery of the vaccine to vaccinate high priority populations could begin immediately.
