Mass. doctor ousted by RFK Jr. as part of purge to CDC vaccine advisory committee
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday ousted the entire panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, and a Massachusetts doctor was among the 17 removed.
Lin Chen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last summer by the Biden administration.
She was slated to serve on the committee through 2028, until Kennedy, a leading vaccine skeptic who is now the nation's top health official, erased its entire roster Monday. He characterized the decision as one that would restore public trust in vaccines.
'Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,' he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Monday. 'A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.'
Read more: RFK Jr. says US ending COVID shot recommendation for healthy children, pregnant women
The entire committee was comprised of Biden appointees, the Associated Press reported, and it featured a handful of New England representatives in addition to Chen, including:
Sybil Cineas, associate program director for the Brown University Combined Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program
George Kuchel, director of the UConn Center on Aging at UConn Health
Albert Shaw, professor of medicine in the Section of Infectious Diseases at the Yale School of Medicine
According to her professional biography, Chen's clinical research emphasis is on diseases associated with travel, emerging infections, vector-borne diseases, vaccines and immigrant health.
She is the past president of the International Society of Travel Medicine.
Her recent research aims to 'improve immunization in relevant populations and decrease morbidity and mortality in international travelers, migrants, and occupational travelers and expatriates.'
Chen could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Dr. Tom Freidan, former director of the CDC from 2009 to 2017, posted on LinkedIn Monday that the 17 panel members were 'fired by Secretary Kennedy based on false claims of conflicts of interest – a dangerous and unprecedented action that makes our families less safe.'
Freidan hailed the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices a 'a model for the world' because of its 'transparent, fact-based guidance with rigorous reviews of vaccine safety and effectiveness.'
'Make no mistake: Politicizing the ACIP as Secretary Kennedy is doing will undermine public trust under the guise of improving it,' he posted. 'If this leads to vaccines not being recommended, millions of people could lose access, pay more for vaccines and for preventable illnesses, and children will be at greater risk of diseases we haven't faced in decades.'
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