US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced that he is removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
"Vaccines have become a divisive issue in American politics, but there is one thing all parties can agree on: The U.S. faces a crisis of public trust," Kennedy wrote in an editorial for The Wall Street Journal on Monday, where he made the announcement.
"Whether toward health agencies, pharmaceutical companies or vaccines themselves, public confidence is waning," he said, claiming that the "committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."
The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) is comprised of medical and public health experts who make recommendations to the CDC about the country's vaccines, who should get them and the schedule of shots for children. The committee reports to the CDC director, who then reviews the recommendations and chooses whether to adopt them.
ACIP members are required to disclose conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from voting on vaccines for which a conflict exists, but the CDC released a database in March, with already publicly-disclosed information, that some committee members had previously worked on clinical trials or vaccine research funded by drug companies.
Kennedy, a well-established proponent of the anti-vaccine movement, has previously made several debunked claims about the harms that vaccines cause, but since being appointed to lead HHS by President Donald Trump, he has overseen a series of steps that have undercut vaccine access, including decreasing funding for vaccine distribution to children of lower income families, according to media reports.
Restoring public trust
Dismantling the CDC's committee of top health and medical experts is Kennedy's most aggressive move so far.
"Today we are prioritising the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda," Kennedy said in a statement released by HHS. "The public must know that unbiased science — evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest —guides the recommendations of our health agencies."
It should not come as a surprise that all 17 ACIP members were appointed during President Joe Biden's administration. HHS officials said the 17-member committee will be replaced "with new members currently under consideration."
"A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science," said Kennedy. "ACIP's new members will prioritise public health and evidence-based medicine."
"Public trust has eroded," he said. "Only through radical transparency and gold standard science will we earn it back."
ACIP is scheduled to hold its next meeting at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta from June 25 to June 27.
Vaccines for anthrax, Covid-19, human papillomavirus, influenza, Lyme disease, respiratory syncytial virus, and more are on the agenda.
