CNN
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US Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday rejected a panel of vaccine advisors experts who historically led federal vaccine recommendations, saying the group is “stricken by conflicts of interest.”
The entire 17-person advisory board for vaccination practices advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend necessary vaccination coverage, leaving and replacing it with new members, Kennedy announced in the Wall Street Journal Op-ed. The HHS Secretary has the authority to appoint and deny ACIP members who will serve the usual four-year cycle. However, early removal of an entire panel is unprecedented.
Kennedy said many of the panel members (traditionally pediatricians, epidemiologists, immunologists and other physicians) were “last-minute appointees” of the Biden administration. “Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” he wrote.
ACIP members are not political appointees. However, Kennedy, a longtime critic of federal vaccine policy and vaccine safety, argued that the current group is full of conflicts of interest and that vaccine recommendations are not transparent. ACIP recently considered narrowing down recommendations for Covid-19 vaccination among children.
Kennedy previously had committed to Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to consult with the senators about filling in the key role of the vaccine advisory committee.
A Cassidy spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The committee is scheduled to meet on June 25th to discuss vaccinations against Covid-19, RSV, influenza, HPV and meningococcal disease. HHS said the meeting will continue and will provide agents in about two weeks to fill the advisory committee.
“Appointing people who fast this means they’re not properly vetted and there’s no real-time to check for conflicts of interest issues,” UC Law Law professor Dorit Rice told CNN. “This will not restore confidence in the vaccine, nor is it a design to do so.”