TARGETING SCIENCERFK Announces New ACIP Members, Including Vaccine Critics
HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory committee, replacing them with a group of eight new members, some of whom are vaccine skeptics.
Coming just 2 days after US Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., removed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory committee, on Wednesday he announced a group of eight new members, some of whom are vaccine skeptics.
On X, he said the appointments were designed to restore public trust in vaccines, and the eight members will attend the next scheduled meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on June 25.
According to the Federal Register, the group is slated to discuss several vaccine topics during the 3-day meeting, with recommendation votes scheduled for COVID-19 vaccines, human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, influenza vaccines, meningococcal vaccine, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines for adults, and RSV vaccine for maternal and pediatric populations. The group is also slated to vote on Vaccines for Children (VFC) program vaccines for COVID-19, HPV, influenza, and RSV.
The CDC has always had a rigorous vetting process for ACIP members who apply to the committee as seats become vacant when members rotate off the committee. The application process known to take as long as 2 years. “These positions are held by technically qualified people trained in a clinical medical field and possessing in-depth knowledge of vaccines and immunization,” CDC background information says.
Members are also required to declare potential conflicts of interest. Applications are typically done by the CDC’s ACIP steering committee, with final selection by the HHS secretary.
It’s not clear how the eight members were vetted and if the ACIP steering committee was involved. CBS News reported that career CDC employees who oversee ACIP have been removed from their roles. The team was led by Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH, the CDC’s associate director for vaccine policy.
Eight Members Include Some Vaccine Critics
Though Kennedy had said earlier this week that none of the new ACIP picks would be “ideological anti-vaxxers,” the group includes multiple vaccine skeptics. The eight ACIP appointees are:
