From the perspective of one Seattle infectious disease doctor, access to COVID-19 shots won’t change much after a highly anticipated meeting of the nation’s top vaccine advisers.

Dr. Helen Chu, a UW Medicine physician, used to serve on the advisory committee before she was fired this year, along with 16 other members, by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has since replaced them all with his own picks. The committee now includes several vaccine skeptics who met Thursday and Friday to discuss whether to recommend the updated COVID vaccines to people 6 months and older this fall, as the panel has done every year since the shots have been available.

They ultimately did not, instead opting to encourage those who want a COVID vaccine to consult with a health care provider first.

But

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