US vaccine panel head questions polio recommendation

The chair of a U.S. government vaccine advisory panel questioned broad vaccine recommendations for polio and other childhood diseases and said

promoting individual choice, not public health, is the key aim of the panel, drawing a rebuke on Friday from the nation's top doctors group.



Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who was named chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's outside Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in December, made the comments in a Thursday interview on the podcast, "Why Should I Trust You?"



Vaccination against some diseases, like polio, could be reconsidered given advances in medical care, said Milhoan, who joined the committee after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, fired all previous members in June.