posted online<\/a>, and to recuse themselves from voting on decisions where they may have a conflict.<\/p>\nDr Brewer said the panel had \u201cone of the most rigorous conflict of interest procedures of any federal committee\u201d.<\/p>\n
The members had a wide range of vaccine expertise, and thoroughly reviewed and debated vaccine data to make the best decisions for the public, said Paul Offit, a former Acip member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
In his editorial, Kennedy said that the \u201cproblem isn\u2019t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n
Dr Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, a professional organisation for American doctors, said mass sacking \u201cupends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,\u201d Dr Scott said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s move appears contrary to assurances he gave during his confirmation hearings. Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who is also a doctor, reported that he received commitments from the health secretary that Acip would be maintained \u201cwithout changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, Cassidy wrote on X: \u201cOf course, now the fear is that the Acip will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I\u2019ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public health experts share Cassidy\u2019s concerns that Kennedy may appoint vaccine-sceptics to the board.<\/p>\n
Such replacements would mean some vaccines \u201cwon\u2019t be recommended at all\u201d and other effective shots could \u201cno longer be reimbursable by insurance companies\u201d, said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a consequence, we will see still further declines in vaccination rates, and then a resurgence of the diseases that they could have prevented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kennedy did not say who he would appoint to replace the board members. The health secretary appears to be calling people himself and asking them to serve on the panel, said Dr Offit, who said he has heard from at least two people Kennedy called.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis whole notion of radical transparency \u2013 this is the opposite of that,\u201d Dr Offit said. \u201cThis is one man making a decision behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acip has a meeting scheduled starting 25 June, at which members are scheduled to vote on recommendations for vaccines for Covid, flu, meningococcal disease, RSV and other illnesses.<\/p>\n
Dr Brewer said Acip had some of the \u201cbest scientists in the world\u201d, adding that the secretary would have a hard time finding that calibre of experts again on short-term notice.<\/p>\n
The BBC contacted the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Acip chair, Dr Helen Keipp Talbot, for comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, has removed all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations. Announcing the move in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said that conflicts of interest on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip) were responsible for undermining trust […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}