The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it is reviving the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, a panel that has been inactive since 1998. The move restores a body first mandated by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 to improve the safety, quality and oversight of immunizations given to American children. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will chair the task force, which will include senior officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The group is required to submit its first formal report to Congress within two years and to provide updates every two years thereafter, focusing on recommendations for vaccines that cause “fewer and less serious adverse reactions” than current products. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reinstated the panel following sustained pressure from Children’s Health Defense and other vaccine-skeptical organizations, which had filed a lawsuit in May seeking the task force’s return. HHS said the panel will work closely with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines as it develops its recommendations.