Rich DiPentima of Portsmouth has served as Chief of Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Assistant Director of Public Health for the NH Division of Public Health Services (NHDPHS), Deputy Public Health Director for the Manchester Health Department and is a retired NH Air National Guard public health officer.

On March 13, the Influenza Advisory Board was scheduled to meet to establish the components of the next influenza season’s vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) canceled this meeting.

The FDA is under the control of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), now headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The decision to cancel this meeting raises very serious concerns regarding the timely availability of a safe and effective influenza vaccine for the 2025-26 influenza season. In normal times, this decision is made in March in order to give vaccine manufacturers the needed time to produce and distribute sufficient amounts of vaccine before the onset of the influenza season.

If a safe and effective influenza vaccine is not available in sufficient quantities or not at all prior to the onset of the influenza season, the consequences will be catastrophic in terms of public health, the economy, public safety, military readiness, medical costs and social disruption. Each year about 47% of Americans receive an influenza vaccine; for people over age 65, that rate sits at about 51%. According to the CDC, in the U.S. the average number of deaths due to influenza from 2010-2020 was approximately 36,000. The number of deaths depends on the virus strain and vaccine rates. However the mortality due to influenza among people aged 65 and older is very concerning. In the U.S., 90% of all flu-related deaths are in people aged 65 and older, and account for between 50%-70% of all flu-related hospitalizations.

The unavailability of an influenza vaccine will not only impact the health of the population, it will impact every aspect of society. If people are unable to work due to illness or to care for sick family members, this will impact our economy.

Excess need for medical care including hospitalizations will greatly increase health care costs for everyone. A large influenza case load can disrupt and overwhelm already stressed medical capabilities. If police, fire, emergency services, health care workers and the military are not immunized and experience high levels of influenza, our public safety, health care and defense can be severely impacted.

As a former Air Force public health officer, I was responsible for the annual influenza vaccine program on my base. It was seen as a mission critical program to insure that our population was protected in order to avoid a disruption in our capabilities due to an influenza outbreak. For the same reason, this is why most health care facilities require influenza vaccination of their employees.

Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, put it best. She stated: “Canceling a critically important FDA meeting that is vital to the development of effective flu vaccines for the next flu season is irresponsible, ignores science and shows a lack of concern for the protection of the public from this potentially severe disease. This decision and other federal efforts to undermine well-established science about vaccine safety pits everyone at risk, especially when we are currently experiencing the worst US flu season in more than a decade. Canceling this meeting means vaccine makers may not have the vital information and time they need to produce and distribute targeted vaccines before the next flu season. If the FDA meeting is not immediately rescheduled, many lives that could be saved by vaccination will be lost.”

The most basic function of government is to protect the health and safety of its people. As Secretary of DHHS, Kennedy has the duty and obligation to fulfill that mandate.

Unfortunately, it appears that he is putting his own ideology ahead of the health of the American people.