All 17 experts ousted from the federal vaccine advisory committee have spoken out about the drastic changes that anti-vaccine advocate and current US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made since taking office. Those changes include unilaterally restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines and summarily firing the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which had guided federal vaccine policies for more than 60 years.
“We are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of US immunization policy, impact people’s access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put US families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses,” the fired experts write in an editorial published in JAMA.
Kennedy dismissed the entire committee on June 9, accusing the former members of lacking public trust and being “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest,” despite the committee’s transparent disclosure and conflict of interest policies.
While the previous vetting process for new ACIP members took up to two years, Kennedy announced eight new members to the committee just two days later, several of whom are public health contrarians, anti-vaccine advocates, and appear to have conflicts of interest.
“Critically weakened”
In the editorial, the former ACIP members fought back, noting that despite the insidious spread of anti-vaccine sentiment, the vast majority of the country has trusted ACIP and vaccine recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For the past 18 years, data has shown that 99 out of every 100 children in the US have received at least some recommended vaccines by 2 years of age, consistent with acceptance of ACIP recommendations, they write.