RFK Jr.’s recent ACIP CDC vaccine panel to review long-approved shots

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s revamped government panel of vaccine advisors will start a review of long-approved shots within the U.S., the leader of the group said Wednesday in the primary meeting with recent members.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, can even review the childhood vaccination schedule. Earlier this month, Kennedy in a shocking step removed and replaced all members of the group, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ACIP members are independent medical and public health experts who review vaccine data and make recommendations that determine who’s eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, amongst other efforts. But Kennedy appointed some vaccine critics, including Dr. Robert Malone, who could shape immunization policy and affect availability within the U.S. 

ACIP will create recent work groups, that are staff that review published and unpublished data and develop advice options to present to the committee, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, the brand new chair of the panel, said through the meeting. One recent work group will review the childhood vaccine schedule, while one other will examine shots which have not been subject to reviews in greater than seven years, he said.

The latter group may examine the universally beneficial hepatitis B vaccine and ask whether it’s “sensible” to manage the shot to each newborn before they leave the hospital, Kulldorff added. He also said the group could review the mix measles, mumps and rubella shot, together with the chickenpox jab. Vaccine skeptics have questioned the protection of each shots.

“This was presupposed to be an everyday practice of the ACIP, but it surely has not been done in an intensive and systematic way. We are going to change that,” Kulldorff said.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, told reporters later Wednesday that reviewing the vaccine schedule has been “an anti-vaccine trope for a lot of, a few years.” O’Leary said many vaccines are “essentially at all times reviewed in real-time through a lot of different mechanisms,” including several safety surveillance and disease surveillance tools.

The American Academy of Pediatrics didn’t take part in the ACIP meeting on Wednesday because “we view it as illegitimate,” O’Leary said. He added that the organization will proceed to supply vaccine schedules for youngsters independently of the CDC.

“What we’re seeing today, and if this were to proceed, the medical providers, public health professionals, the complete country isn’t any longer going to trust ACIP. That is clear,” O’Leary said, saying the goal is to reinstate the 17 members that Kennedy fired and return to “a standard process.”

During a full-day meeting Wednesday in Atlanta, the panel evaluated data on Covid-19 vaccines and RSV shots. A vote on recommendations for the latter was postponed until the group’s meeting on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the group will review data on shots for the flu and other diseases. 

The CDC director has to log off on those recommendations for them to grow to be official policy.

“Vaccines aren’t all good or bad,” Kulldorff said in opening remarks.

“Should you think that every one vaccines are secure and effective and need all of them, or when you think that every one vaccines are dangerous and don’t need any of them, then you definately haven’t got much use for us. You already know what you would like,” said Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early within the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But when you want to know which vaccines are suitable for you and your kids and at what ages, then we are going to offer you evidence-based recommendations,” he added.

Ahead of the meeting, one in all Kennedy’s recent appointees stepped down from the panel.

In an announcement, an HHS spokesperson said Dr. Michael Ross withdrew from ACIP during a compulsory review of every member’s financial holdings, without providing further details. It’s unclear what his financial holdings are.

Ross is a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and has served on one other CDC advisory panel focused on breast and cervical cancer.

A CDC web page on conflict of interest disclosures for ACIP members doesn’t appear to list any for Kennedy’s members, other than Dr. Cody Meissner.

One other recent member, Retsef Levi, has pushed to stop giving mRNA vaccines, falsely claiming in a post on X that they cause “serious harm including death, especially amongst young people.”

One other member, Vicky Pebsworth, is a nurse on the board of The National Vaccine Information Center. That organization has been widely criticized as a number one source of misinformation and fearmongering about immunization.

Through the meeting on Wednesday, Pebsworth revealed that she owns stock and health-care sector funds that include vaccine manufacturers. But she said her holdings are under the quantity the federal government considers to be a conflict of interest, allowing her to take part in the ACIP meeting.

Kennedy fired previous ACIP members for having what he called “persistent conflicts of interest.” But all HHS agencies and their advisory panels have had rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years.