“The new ACIP members bring a wealth of real-world public health experience to the job of making immunization recommendations,” said Jim O’Neill, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and Acting Director of the CDC in a media statement.
“We are grateful for their service in helping restore the public confidence in vaccines that was lost during the Biden era.”
Kennedy’s imprint on vaccine panel grows The new members join the seven others Kennedy named to the panel in June, replacements he handpicked after firing all 17 of the panel’s previously seated members.
This move, among others, has led top medical organizations and public health groups to question the integrity of the group’s advice.
“Misinformation, politicization of commonsense public health efforts, and sudden changes to federal vaccine guidance is creating mass confusion and diminishing trust in public health.
Days before Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers convene to determine who should receive COVID vaccines this season, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed five additional members to the committee that he cleared in June of appointees from the Biden administration.
These are the latest additions to the powerful Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Hilary Blackburn is a podcast host and pharmacist at AscensionRx.
Doctor. Kirk Milhoan is an Independent Medical Alliance affiliate and pediatric cardiologist.
Doctor. Evelyn Griffin is an ob/gyn who practices functional medicine.
Dr. Among them is semi-retired transplant surgeon Raymond Pollak.
According to Case Western Reserve University epidemiology professor Catherine Stein, the government exaggerated the risks of COVID-19.
In a press release, Jim O’Neill, the Acting Director of the CDC and Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, said, “The new ACIP members bring a wealth of real-world public health experience to the job of making immunization recommendations.”. Their assistance in regaining the public’s trust in vaccines, which was undermined during the Biden administration, is greatly appreciated. “..”.
The advisory group, which currently has twelve members, makes suggestions that influence which vaccines are provided at no cost under the Vaccines for Children program and which ones are usually covered by health insurance. They also have an impact on local and state legislation pertaining to vaccination requirements.
Just before the committee’s meeting in Atlanta this week, the appointments broaden its membership. The members will be debating policy on Thursday and Friday, including whether or not all newborns should receive the hepatitis B vaccine and who should receive the fall COVID-19 booster shot.
Early in September, a short list of members was leaked.
Early this month, when the names of the new committee members first surfaced in news reports, NPR contacted each of them. Just one person answered.
Dr. The semi-retired transplant surgeon Raymond Pollak was still going through the screening process in September. 5. “I think I’d be an ideal choice for a committee like this,” he said to NPR. “I understand the science behind what is being proposed because of my background in transplant biology and my expertise in clinical trial management and ethics. “..”.
Prior to joining the committee, Pollak claims he had not given much thought to ACIP; however, he views the presence of non-vaccine specialists on the panel as beneficial. In order to create policies that make sense to everyone, he believes it is beneficial to have a wide representation of the community at large, both with and without the requisite expertise.
Although Pollack believes that COVID vaccines are “safe to administer and provided a benefit in that it kept down the severity of the illness and prevented hospitalization,” he claims that the rollout of the vaccine was “poorly managed,” which fueled hysteria and conspiracy theories that the government concealed vaccine-related harms and injuries. Pollak asserts that the idea that the government attempted to “cover it up” is untrue. “The medical literature contains all of the information regarding negative effects. The issue is that it rarely spreads widely among the general public and instead stays within the profession. “,”.
Kennedy’s influence on the vaccine panel continues to grow.
The new members join the seven others Kennedy hand-picked to serve on the panel in June after dismissing all 17 of the panel’s previous members. Retsef Levi, an MIT professor of operations management who rose to prominence during the pandemic for criticizing COVID vaccines, and Dr. Robert Malone, who has disseminated false information about the virus and opposed vaccine mandates, are among the replacements who first met at the CDC in June.
Kennedy dismissed members who had been formally screened to make sure they would not directly profit from any ACIP votes, and they were selected for their knowledge of vaccine policy and medical expertise. To maintain process and expertise continuity, they had been working in overlapping rotations for a number of years.
“There are significant gaps in the new ACIP’s composition in terms of their missing expertise on primary care, their missing expertise on cost effectiveness, and their missing expertise on clinical trials and vaccines,” says Noel Brewer, a former ACIP member who was fired by Kennedy in June after serving on the committee for a year. These are people who don’t have a thorough understanding of vaccines. They should not be establishing policy for the United States, and I would not follow their medical advice. “..”.
The way the ACIP functions has changed significantly since Kennedy reorganized the panel. For example, at their June meeting, they voted to essentially outlaw flu shots that contain the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal. Debunked claims without fresh scientific proof of harms served as the foundation for the change. Among other things, this action has caused leading medical associations and public health organizations to doubt the validity of the group’s recommendations.
“Public health confidence is eroding due to misinformation, the politicization of sensible public health initiatives, and abrupt modifications to federal vaccine recommendations. “The stakes could not be higher as we enter another fall season that is certain to be marked by cases of flu, Covid-19, and RSV as well as the alarming reappearance of measles and pertussis,” the presidents of five professional medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians, wrote in a June opinion piece published in Stat News.
ACIP guidance is linked to a number of state vaccine laws. Dennis Worsham, health secretary for the Washington State Department of Health, which has partnered with California, Oregon, and Hawaii on vaccine policy, says that some states with Democratic governors are beginning to lessen their reliance on the committee due to worries that recommendations in the future might be based on “ideology and not science.”.
In this report, Rob Stein contributed.
