4 days ago
Colorado doctor dismissed by RFK Jr. from CDC vaccine committee offers guidance
This week saw a major shift for the nation's medical community working to keep you safe from diseases. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior dismissed every member of a government advisory panel that makes vaccine recommendations. And a Coloradan is one of 17 people who sat on that panel.
Kennedy ousted all members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.
In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy wrote that the committee "has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."
CBS News Colorado spoke with Dr. Edwin Asturias, the only Coloradan on that panel, who learned of his dismissal from ACIP via the piece in the WSJ. Asturias, a pediatrician, is an infectious disease specialist. Although he practices at Children's Hospital Colorado and is on the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Asturias said that the perspective he offered was his own and not representing those institutions.
He is concerned the move by Kennedy will undermine public trust in vaccines at a critical moment, with measles outbreaks now happening across the country.
"We'll continue to produce the science but we hope that the ACIP continues to be led by people that have the expertise to make those recommendations and make sure that the public continues to accept vaccines that have been a tremendous impact for decreasing illness in children and families."
Kennedy's ousting of the committee's members comes ahead of a meeting of the panel scheduled to start on June 25. The panel was expected to vote on new recommendations for COVID-19 and other vaccines.
Asturias says families should look to their doctors and longstanding medical professional organizations for guidance on vaccines, including groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics.
While Kennedy said that committee members had conflicts of interest with the vaccine industry, Asturias said the process for selecting ACIP members was rigorous; the screening for conflicts was a public process, which took up to two years.
Asturias said, "It was a long, very rigorous process to make sure that the people that we had were the best people. We're just hoping that it will be incredible for that process that took a year to two to be shortened into two weeks."
He said he'll be interested to learn about the expertise of the new members of ACIP, and worries about the lack of transparency involved with changes just as the panel was preparing to issue new vaccine guidelines.
"Parents will have some hesitancy of those recommendations. But people need to know also that many of us will continue to work with our professional organizations, with our hospitals and our many institutions to help parents be guided in how they should use vaccines best," said Dr. Asturias.
In the op-ed in the WSJ Kennedy, a skeptic of vaccines over many years, wrote, "Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028. A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science."
