Despite encountering a legal roadblock last month in his effort to rework the U.S. vaccine infrastructure, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is continuing to reshape the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel in a way that’s setting off alarm bells for some experts.
In the new charter for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the focus of the group—which helps advise the CDC on vaccine schedules and recommendations—seems to be shifting more toward concerns around vaccine safety and side effects.
In particular, the panel will now work on identifying “gaps in vaccine safety research, including adverse effects following vaccination.” The language is new in the updated charter and will likely appease the vaccine skeptic crowd, which has long used the potential for vaccine injuries and erroneous links to the development of neurological disorders like autism to further their cause.
The group will also now specifically be tasked with reviewing new vaccine platforms such as mRNA shots, which have become a frequent bugbear in anti-vaccine rhetoric following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another major change outlined in the charter comes down to the bona fides of ACIP’s members.
While the panel will continue to host members with expertise in medicine, vaccines, immunization practices and immunology, the types of know-how the ACIP is seeking will now also include knowledge about toxicology, pediatric neurodevelopment, recovery “from serious vaccine injuries” and at least one person with insights into “consumer perspectives” or the social and community-focused aspects of immunization programs.
An HHS spokesperson has pushed back on the idea that the charter update represents a meaningful change for the panel, telling CNN that it’s an effort to meet “routine statutory requirements” and not part of a “broader policy shift.”
Still, the charter update isn’t winning over some of RFK Jr.’s critics in the medical community. In a statement, Ronald G. Nahass, M.D., president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the new document “is another alarming action by Secretary Kennedy that will further dismantle U.S. vaccine infrastructure, spread misinformation and confusion about vaccines, and lead to reduced vaccine uptake by an already confused and distrustful public.”
The charter publication marks yet another turn in a dramatic chapter for ACIP over the last year. Last June, RFK Jr. purged the panel’s entire prior roster in favor of a fresh start, arguing he was “prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.”
Intense pushback from the medical community followed, including in the form of a lawsuit from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and others that ended up landing a major blow against RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul.
Last month, a judge ruled that key portions of the HHS secretary’s vaccine agenda have been implemented unlawfully, specifically pointing to the ACIP appointments and a CDC immunization schedule rework.
That decision put ACIP on ice, and one high-profile member of the panel has reportedly left the panel.
