News Brief
US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has removed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), according to multiple media reports.
The move is intended to “re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Secretary Kennedy said in an editorial published by the Wall Street Journal.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is removing every member of a government panel that makes vaccine recommendations.
Kennedy said he is “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, asserting that it “has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this year, Secretary Kennedy and HHS bypassed ACIP and the FDA’s US Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee when issuing updated vaccine recommendations for influenza.
In a statement, the American Medical Association denounced the dismantling of ACIP.
“For generations, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been a trusted national source of science-and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease. Physicians, parents, community leaders and public health officials rely on them for clinical guidance, public health information, and knowledge. Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives. With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses.” said Bruce A. Scott, MD, president of the American Medical Association.
