A decision to reconstitute the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is raising alarm among some in the medical community.
The ACIP consists of health professionals of various practices who provide recommendations on who receives the vaccines once approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he decided to replace all 17 members of the vaccine expert panel to “restore public trust in vaccines.”
On Wednesday, Kennedy unveiled eight people he has chosen to join the ACIP at its upcoming meeting in late June.
“This is unprecedented and unwarranted, and we should be alarmed,” said Dr. Ann Falsey, an infectious disease specialist for the University of Rochester Medical Center who has led many vaccine trials at the institution.
“We depend on the recommendations of the committee to use resources wisely and give the vaccines to people that need them,” she said. “We in the scientific and medical community have to look into our hearts and figure out how we lost the public trust that others can step into the space and feel like they're more trusted than people who've been working in vaccine research for 30 to 40 years.”
The experts are appointed to the panel for terms of up to four years. Falsey said some of the panelists have been on the committee for quite some time, and the move will threaten the historical knowledge and rapport that the group has already built.
“By eliminating the entire committee, you've just lopped off all the knowledge and memory of people that have participated in these kind of decisions and reviews,” she said. “It's like starting from ground zero.”
This move comes as Kennedy and the CDC appeared to differ on whether the COVID-19 vaccine should continue to be recommended for children and pregnant women.
