New Delhi, June 27 -- A federal vaccine advisory committee is preparing to re-evaluate the childhood vaccination schedule and reexamine long-standing immunizations, a move that has triggered alarm over concerns about potential changes to established vaccine recommendations.

On Wednesday (June 25), the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under its new chair, Martin Kulldorff.

Kulldorff announced the creation of two new work groups: one to scrutinize the cumulative effects of all recommended vaccines in children and adolescents, and another to review vaccines that have not been evaluated in more than seven years.

"The number of vaccines that our children and adolescents receive today...