U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Major physicians and public health groups criticized all 17 members who moved to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP).
Kennedy didn't say who he was appointing to the group, but said it would be called in Atlanta in just two weeks.
Although not usually considered a party board, the entire lineup of committee members is currently appointed by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
“Without dismissal, the current Trump administration will not appoint most new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal article. “A clean scan is needed to rebuild public confidence in vaccine science.”
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When arrived by phone, the group's current combo chair – Dr. Helen Cape Talbert of Vanderbilt University – declined to comment. But another panelist, Noel Brewer of the University of North Carolina, said he and other committee members received an email Monday afternoon saying their services on the committee had been fired, but there was no reason.
“I thought I would continue to serve on the committee,” Brewer said.
Brewer is a behavioral scientist who studies why people get vaccinated and how to improve vaccination coverage. Whether people get vaccinated is affected by doctors’ advice, doctors have been following ACIP guidance.
“To this day, ACIP recommendations are the fees that insurance companies should pay, what should be recommended and the gold standard that the public should look for,” he said.
The committee did not consult
But Kennedy has taken unusual steps to change COVID-19 recommendations without having to consult a committee first, a move that has been criticized by doctor groups and public health advocates.
“The future is not clear yet,” Brewer said. “Of course, provider organizations have begun to get rid of ACIP.”
Kennedy said committee members had too many conflicts of interest. Currently, committee members must declare any potential conflicts and commercial interests that arise during their term of office. They also have to disclose any possible conflicts at the beginning of each public meeting.
But Dr. Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve, saved lives, former former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said Kennedy’s actions were based on false conflict of interest claims and set “a dangerous and unprecedented action that would allow our families to potentially reduce access to vaccines.”
“There is no doubt that politicizing ACIP, because what Secretary Kennedy did will undermine public trust under the guise of improving it,” he said in a statement. “We will recall that this is a serious mistake, sacrificed decades of scientific rigor, undermined public trust and opened the door to marginal theory rather than facts.”
“Not how democracy works”
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Kennedy's massive recall a “coup.”
“This is not how democratic countries work. It's bad for the health of the country,” he said.
Benjamin said the move raised real concerns about whether future committee members will be seen as just. He added that Kennedy is opposing the information he told lawmakers and the public that the Public Health Association plans to watch Kennedy “like an eagle.”
“He is making a promise,” Benjamin said. “He said he wouldn't do that.”
Bruce A. President of the American Medical Association
“Today's action … undermines trust and subverts a process of transparency, saving countless lives,” Scott said in a statement.
The committee has been in a state of constant change since Kennedy took over. The first meeting of this year was postponed when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suddenly postponed its February meeting.
During Kennedy's confirmation, Cassidy expressed concerns about the preservation committee, saying he sought assurance that Kennedy would keep the group's current vaccine recommendations.
Shortly after Kennedy announced the news, the featured web pages of committee members were deleted.
