RFK JR. removes all members of the CDC committee who advise us on vaccines
The secretary of the US Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary for health and human services, said on Monday that he had “retired” all 17 members of a decisive government committee of vaccine advisors, a shocking step that could help sow doubts in the USA
“A clean sweep is necessary to restore the public's trust in vaccine science,” said Kennedy on Monday in an opinion in Wall Street Journal.
Kennedy removes all members of the advisory committee for immunization practices or ACIP, which advises the centers for the control and prevention of diseases. The group checks vaccine data and gives recommendations that determine who is entitled to record recordings and whether the insurers should cover them, among other things.
ACIP members are independent medical and public experts who are based on recommendations based on strict scientific reviews and evidence. The CDC director must unsubscribe for you in order to become official guidelines.
It is unclear who Kennedy will appoint in the new group. In a press release, HHS said that Acip would continue to hold a planned session from June 25th to 27th to make recommendations. A person familiar with the matter announced CNBC that new members will be operating this meeting.
The overhaul of the consultants is the most recent step of Kennedy – a prominent vaccine skeptic – to change and possibly undermine vaccinations in the USA since he took the helm at HHS. Under Kennedy, HHS recommended the recommendation of routine covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women and canceled programs with which new vaccines to prevent future pandemics were discovered.
Kennedy said on Monday that HHS “puts the restoration of public trust through a pro-ICCINE agenda.
Kennedy added that some of the members of the committee were in the last minute of the bidges of the administration and found that the Trump government would not be able to appoint a majority of the new members by 2028 by 2028.
Kennedy claimed that the committee “was plagued by persistent conflicts of interest and that there was little more than a stamp for every vaccine”.
But all HHS agencies and their advisory bodies have strict guidelines for conflicts of interest, and there have been no relatives for years. All members of federal obligations committees must already comply with regulations on the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.
The announcement takes place days after the expert for pediatric infectious diseases, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotopoulos, as Co-Leader, has resigned from ACIP because it is “no longer able to help the most endangered members of the US population”.
Experts in health policy previously announced that a Skill of the advisory committee could make politicized recommendations that highlight the damage and advantages of shots. These recommendations could also cause greater distrust of the CDC and Trump management among scientists and experts in public health.
Acip has also checked vaccine products in the past, in contrast to the numbers of Kennedy and other Trump administration. In certain cases, the group recommended that vaccines be used more limited than their approval would allow the Food and Drug Administration.
For example, the FDA approved the HPV vaccine from Merck for women and men between the ages of 9 and 45. However, the CDC only recommends its use in patients aged 9 to 26, since there is a lower advantage of public health vaccine at the age of 27 to 45.
– Angelica Peebles from CNBC contributed to this report.
