On CDC vaccine panel, RFK Jr. makes a bad situation much worse
Four months into his tenure as the secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has approached vaccine policy in a predictably dangerous way. The longtime anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist has not only narrowed vaccine eligibility standards and changed official recommendations, Kennedy and his team have also halted potentially lifesaving vaccine research.
It was against this backdrop that the unqualified Cabinet secretary made matters worse this week, ousting the members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent vaccine advisory committee. As NBC News reported, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) 'consists of medical and public health experts — including pediatricians, epidemiologists and geriatricians — who make recommendations to the CDC about who should get certain vaccines, including the schedule for childhood vaccinations.'
After Kennedy removed the qualified experts — reportedly for political reasons — Dr. Sean O'Leary, an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The New York Times that the move should be seen as 'an unmitigated public health disaster.'
Soon after, the health secretary tried to reassure the public that he'd replace the respected scientists with 'highly credentialed' successors. You can probably guess what happened next.
The New York Times reported that Kennedy announced several new additions to the ACIP panel, 'including four who have spoken out against vaccination in some way.' From the article:
By far the most contentious pick, and the one with the highest profile, is Dr. Robert Malone. He played an early role in mRNA research and has claimed to be the inventor of the technology. He became a right-wing star after a 2021 appearance on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' that exposed both him and Mr. Rogan to criticism that they had spread misinformation. Dr. Malone was a vocal critic of the Biden administration's Covid response.
The Times quoted one infectious disease expert who noted that Malone 'has a well-documented history of promoting conspiracy theories and unproven treatment like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19.'
The Wall Street Journal noted that Kennedy also tapped Vicky Pebsworth, a nurse with a Ph.D. in public health, 'who is a board member of the National Vaccine Information Center, an organization that advocates against vaccines.'
The same new list also included Dr. Retsef Levi, who wrote via social media in 2023, 'The evidence is mounting and indisputable that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people.'
Kennedy removed 17 members of the ACIP panel on Monday, and he's now announced eight replacements. As for the other nine, watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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During his Senate confirmation hearings for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to great lengths to downplay his previous anti-vaccine positions to try to assure the public that he wasn't as extreme as his record indicated. But now that he has unveiled new members of an important vaccine advisory committee, his long-held extremism is not only coming back into full view, it's also being operationalized. On Monday, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which is made up of medical and public health experts and advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As NBC News reports, this committee makes 'recommendations to the CDC about who should get certain vaccines, including the schedule for childhood vaccinations.' These recommendations are then adopted by medical professionals and insurers. Kennedy justified the move by alleging that the experts on the panel were all compromised by financial conflicts of interest. 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Kennedy didn't pick random people off the internet; they have credentials, often at highly esteemed institutions, although some of these academic backgrounds apparently deviate from the kind one typically expects for this panel. But many public health experts and those who keep a close eye on vaccine skeptics and anti-vaxxers note that Kennedy appears to be putting together a slate of experts who skew ideologically against consensus and near-consensus views on vaccine safety and efficacy. 'Kennedy did not pick people with strong, current expertise in vaccines,' Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law San Francisco who studies vaccine policy, told NPR. 'It tells me that Kennedy is setting up a committee that would be skeptical of vaccines, and possibly willing to implement an anti-vaccine agenda.' David Mansdoerfer, who served as deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services in the first Trump administration, called Kennedy's announcement 'a huge win for the medical freedom movement.' It's not yet clear how the advisory board will rule on vaccine recommendations in the future. But the real-world effects of this could be significant. As The New York Times notes, the panel's recommendations, which don't have to be adopted by the CDC but typically are, can affect how strongly doctors recommend vaccinations. If the panel's recommendations skew away from recommending vaccines, then it could mean that physicians might be more hesitant to counsel patients to take vaccines that have long been proved to be safe. Furthermore, the panel's recommendations could affect how health insurance companies cover vaccines. 'Right now, insurance companies cover the four-dose polio series. 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