TCA, vol. 67: RFK Jr. just fired all of ACIP
Another piece of our public health infrastructure just got binned.
Yesterday, RFK Jr. announced the firing of the entire 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Members of ACIP learned about their firing by reading RFK’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. In a press release, HHS states that:
“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy concluded. “ACIP's new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas. The entire world once looked to American health regulators for guidance, inspiration, scientific impartiality, and unimpeachable integrity. Public trust has eroded. Only through radical transparency and gold standard science, will we earn it back.”
I find it pretty funny that RFK Jr is trying to reestablish ‘public confidence in vaccines’ when he is one of the disinformation dozen…twelve people that are responsible for 65% of all the vaccine disinformation and misinformation on social media. This is like an arsonist setting fires so that he can look like a hero when putting them out.
RFK Jr also said that the members of the committee all had conflicts of interest, implied that they were in the pocket of “Big Pharma” and always rubber stamped every vaccine. None of this is true, and honestly, I find it defamatory.
What is ACIP?
The ACIP is an independent committee of experts that meets three times a year to discuss vaccines and how they should be implemented in our public health policy. They consider things like:
Which vaccines should be included in the routine recommendation schedule
Vaccine formulations
Number of doses for each vaccine, and when they should be given
What the precautions and contraindications for each vaccine are (people who should not get vaccinated or should have a warning of some sort)
Changes in vaccine supply or vaccine shortages
Between meetings, they study in work groups to keep up to date with all of the newly available information about each vaccine so that they are prepared to present that information at the next meeting.
In addition to the voting members of ACIP, as many as 30 non-voting representatives attend each meeting to comment and offer their perspectives. These reps come from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics or the American College of Physicians. AND there is a mandatory public component to each meeting. Members of the public can submit comments and questions to the committee online prior to each meeting, can request to make an oral public comment at the meeting, and the meetings are all available on a webcast. ACIP votes on and issues recommendations at each meeting.
What happens to ACIP recommendations?
Once ACIP makes their recommendations, they are sent to the CDC Director (right now there is no discernable CDC director) for approval and then are published in the CDC publication The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Once published, they are considered the official CDC recommendations.
Vaccines that are ACIP recommended then must be covered by insurance through the Affordable Care Act and Medicare. Most private insurance companies follow that precedent.
ACIP recommendations are also then followed by health care providers as to who they vaccinate in their clinics, with what, and when.
If the new board (who will be handpicked by RFK Jr) withdraws recommendations for any currently available vaccines (or fails to recommend future vaccines) then your ACA, Medicare/Medicaid or private health insurance will no longer cover them and you’ll have to pay out of pocket.
Also, it will affect the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. VFC gives any vaccine that is ACIP recommended to low-income or uninsured children for free. Right now, that is 54% of all American children. According to this, routine vaccinations have prevented 1,129,000 deaths and 32 million hospitalizations in kids born between 1994 and 2023. If ACIP recommendations are removed, those vaccines wont be available through VFC.
Did ACIP members have conflicts of interest?
No. And its forbidden for anyone to be accepted as an ACIP member if they have certain conflicts of interest. No ACIP member can: Be employed (or have an immediate family member employed) by a vaccine manufacturer; hold a patent on a vaccine or other related biological product; serve on the Board of Directors of a vaccine manufacturer. Scientists and clinicans that are currently working on a vaccine (like running a clinical trial at their hospital) can serve on ACIP but they have to abstain from voting on that particular vaccine, any vaccine like it, or any other vaccine made by the same company.
Sometimes things get murky though, and ACIP members publicly list their possible conflicts of interest prior to every meeting. They can be seen here.
Have ACIP “rubber stamped” every single vaccine considered?
No. ACIP withdrew the recommendation for the Rotavirus vaccine Rotashield from the routine childhood immunization schedule due to safety concerns. They did not recommend the nasal influenza vaccine FluMist for the 2016/7 flu season because it did not seem like it was effective. And they withdrew recommendation for the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to clotting concerns. They also changed the recommendation for the HPV Gardasil vaccine dosage based on new clinical data.
I’m sure there is more in their history, I just got tired of googling after four examples.
Who was on the most current ACIP?
In the HHS statement, it reads “The Biden administration appointed all of the 17 sitting ACIP members.” as if that is some sort of mic drop about the board being political. Well, board members only serve for 4 years, so OF COURSE they were all appointed by Biden. They serve staggered terms so that there is always someone on the board who can update the new people on how things roll… maintaining institutional wisdom. Now that the board has been wiped clean, who knows what kind of style or procedures the new members will adopt.
Here is a list of the recently fired board:
Helen Talbot, MD, MPH. Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, Division of Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. Term: 10/29/2018 – 6/30/2023
Edwin Jose Asturias, MD. Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, CO. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Noel T. Brewer, PhD. Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Oliver Brooks, MD, FAAP. Chief Medical Officer, Watts HealthCare Corporation, Los Angeles, CA. Term: 7/26/2021 – 6/30/2025
Lin Chen, MD, FACP, FASTMH, FISTM. Director, Mount Auburn Travel Medicine Center, Cambridge, MA. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Helen Chu, MD, MPH, FIDSA. Professor of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Sybil Cineas, MD, FAAP, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Science (Clinical), The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Associate Program Director, Brown Combined Residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Providence, RI. Term: 7/28/2021 – 6/30/2025
Denise J. Jamieson. MD, MPH. Vice President for Medical Affairs, Dean, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. Term: 3/4/2024 – 6/30/2027
Mini Kamboj, MD, FIDSA, FSHEA. Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
George Kuchel, MD CM, FRCP, AGSF, FGSA, FAAAS.Professor and Travelers Chair, Geriatrics and Gerontology, UConn Center on Aging, Farmington, CT. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Jamie Loehr, MD, FAAFP, Owner, Cayuga Family Medicine, Ithaca, NY. Term: 7/26/2021 – 6/30/2025
Karyn Lyons, MS, RN. Immunization Section Chief, Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield, IL. Term: 12/20/2024 – 6/30/2028
Yvonne (Bonnie) Maldonado, MD. Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, Department of Pediatrics, Palo Alto, CA
Charlotte Moser, MS. Co-Director, Vaccine Education Center, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Term: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028
Robert Schechter, MD, MSc. Chief, Immunization Branch, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA.
Albert Shaw, MD, PhD, FIDSA. Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine,New Haven, Connecticut. Term: 3/4/2024 – 6/30/2027
Jane Zucker, MD, MSc, FIDSA. Adjunct Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate School of Public Health, Brooklyn, NY. Term: 12/23/2024 – 6/30/2028
Thanks for sticking with me through that. I wanted to make sure you knew what a total bunch of underachieving losers were on the ACIP board (sarcasm). Oh, and by the way… the board is a volunteer situation. They weren’t getting paid for that.
So what now?
Oh, FFS, who can possibly tell.
The next scheduled meeting for ACIP is at the CDC in Atlanta on June 25-27. So, I guess RFK Jr has two weeks to find 17 people to decide which vaccines we all get. I can’t wait to see what type of clown college this turns out to be. Interestingly, you can apply to be on ACIP here. I’d do it, but I’m pretty sure this edition of TCA disqualifies me.
Finally, you can contact Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). Cassidy is a physician and was the only Republican to voice serious concerns about RFK’s nomination to lead the HHS. It was thought that other Republicans might follow his lead. At RFK’s confirmation hearings, Kennedy made several promises to Cassidy to assuage his concerns. Cassidy voted to approve RFK and all the Republicans followed. Cassidy made these statements in a speech before the vote: “If confirmed, [Kennedy] will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — without changes,” after having received assurances from Kennedy.
Cassidy posted this on X yesterday: “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP (the committee) will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.” Considering RFK Jr has already hired Calley Means (who sells unregulated supplements on his website Truemed) as a White House advisor, and anti-vaccine activist David Geier to investigate vaccines and autism…. it seems as if conflicts of interest aren’t a problem as long as the interests are Kennedy’s.
You can contact Sen. Cassidy and urge him to push back on this hostile takeover of public health here.
Stay sane, bothered and informed,
Jessica at TCA
CDC. ACIP membership roster. April 2025.