Wednesday marks the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ first meeting since U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the committee and replaced them with a slate of eight hand-picked appointees.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will reexamine current recommendations around childhood vaccination schedules and Hepatitis B immunizations, members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices announced during a meeting in Atlanta Wednesday.
The committee, which meets three times a year, does not typically garner much public interest. However, this meeting is the first since U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the committee and replaced them with a slate of eight hand-picked appointees, many of whom are seen as vaccine skeptics, launching the little-known committee into the national spotlight.
Medical experts, including the American Medical Association, expressed dismay at Kennedy’s appointment of the new committee members, which the organization said occurred “without transparency and proper vetting to ensure they have the expertise necessary to make vaccine recommendations to protect the health of Americans.”
“We urge the Administration to reconsider the removal of the 17 ACIP members who have deep expertise in vaccines so physicians can continue to have confidence in ACIP’s recommendations,” AMA President Bobby M. Mukkamala said in a statement.
Six former ACIP chairs also authored an op-ed after the former committee members’ dismissal, warning that “if relevant scientific expertise on vaccines is not maintained, access to vaccines may fundamentally change.”
The move was also made in direct contradiction with a promise from Kennedy to Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy ahead of the secretary’s confirmation in February. Cassidy says Kennedy pledged to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”
Cassidy, a doctor who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, called for the meeting to be delayed until members with more expertise in vaccines could be appointed to the panel, but was unsuccessful. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski also expressed concern about the backgrounds of the new panelists.
The committee is now chaired by Martin Kulldorff, a doctor and former Harvard Medical School professor who was fired in 2024 after declining the COVID-19 vaccine, and has spoken out against blanket vaccine mandates during the pandemic.
“Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine when making vaccine recommendations, and that is what we will do,” Kulldorff said in his opening remarks. He also disputed characterizations of his skepticism of vaccine mandates as “anti-vax.”
“Some media outlets have been very harsh on the new members of this committee, issuing false accusations and making concerted efforts to put scientists in either a pro- or anti-vaccine box,” he said. “Such labels undermine critical scientific inquiry, and it further feeds the flame of vaccine hesitancy. To thoroughly scrutinize and assure the safety and efficacy of vaccines is a pro-vaccine position.”
Other appointees to the committee include Robert Malone, a doctor and biochemist who said he views the label of anti-vaxxer as “high praise” and Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses who also serves on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, an organization that advocates for vaccine exemptions.
One member of the committee, Michael Ross, had already withdrawn from the committee by the time the body convened for the two-day summit in Atlanta. Kennedy, who was attending a “Make America Healthy Again” event in Oklahoma, was not present at the meeting.
‘Completely unprecedented’
As the committee met inside, dozens of people braved the sweltering heat to hold what they called a “parade of preventable diseases” to highlight the dangers of limiting the public’s access to vaccines. They also called for the committee to be restored to its previous makeup.
A whole colorful cast of pathogens were represented just outside the center’s entrance, from influenza to HPV to meningococcus. Dr. Deblina Datta carried a leg brace to represent polio.
“This is what we don’t want to see again. When we introduce vaccine skepticism, we are going to see people wearing this,” Datta said holding up the brace.
Datta spent more than two decades at CDC working on immunizations, with six years with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. She called the abrupt overhaul of the committee alarming.
“While a healthy skepticism of vaccine policy is good, this level of skepticism and the sources of the skeptics being put onto ACIP is calamitous,” Datta said. “And it’s absolutely eroding the public’s faith in the ACIP to dictate policy.”
Katrina Kretsinger, who retired from the CDC two years ago after working mostly on vaccine-preventable diseases, said she has major concerns about the changes made to the committee.
“This is completely unprecedented,” she said. “And I really don’t think it’s going to have any credibility.”
But she said she is also trying to have “a little bit of wait and see” attitude about the new members.
“I would say that there’s a number of them who seem like they are reasonably well qualified, and then there are others of the seven who come with a very clear anti-vaccine agenda and are well known for viewpoints that are really hard to defend based on the scientific merits,” Kretsinger said. “It’s very disappointing.”
ACIP’s new agenda
The new ACIP appointees are scheduled to spend two days reviewing safety and efficacy data on COVID-19, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella (MMRV), Influenza, Anthrax and Chikungunya vaccines before voting on new immunization recommendations.
However, Kulldorff said the committee also plans to commission new working groups dedicated to evaluating the impact of childhood vaccines and investigating the timeline for the recommended administration of Hepatitis B vaccines in newborns. The committee will also be reexamining vaccines that have not been reviewed within the last seven years.
“In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it’s important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,” Kulldorff said.
Thursday’s agenda also includes a presentation from Lyn Redwood, the former head of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy.
Redwood, who is not a CDC employee, is expected to argue that a preservative used in a small portion of flu vaccines, known as thimerosal, causes autism. According to the CDC, research has shown no connection between thimerosal and autism or any other source of harm, and the chemical was taken out of childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2001.
Georgia Recorder Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.
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