US top medical body excludes health experts from vaccine advisory process
The move marks an escalation in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s efforts to assert control over the CDC's vaccine advisory process. Under the change, external experts will be excluded from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' working groups — subcommittees that review data and develop policy recommendations — but they will still be able to participate in open public meetings.
The panel's recommendations are important for vaccine access as they help determine which shots insurers are required to cover for free for patients. Kennedy in June fired all its members and replaced them with his own picks, including members who have criticized the safety of the Covid vaccine.
'It is important that the ACIP workgroup activities remain free of influence from any special interest groups, so ACIP workgroups will no longer include liaison organizations,' the email said. It also characterized the groups as biased 'based on their constituency and/or population that they represent.'
The CDC referred a request for comment to HHS. A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond.
Noel Brewer, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina and former member of ACIP who was ousted by Kennedy, said the working groups have long relied on the input of pediatricians, family physicians, gynecologists, nurses and other health professionals to ensure recommendations met the needs of patients and providers.
'This is a huge loss that will be very damaging to medical care,' Brewer said.
Some of the groups that will be excluded from private deliberations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, sued Kennedy this month over his unilateral decision to change federal Covid vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant women.
The panel has become more high profile amid scrutiny of Kennedy's approach to vaccination policy. After Kennedy's confirmation, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said that Kennedy had committed to maintaining the CDC's vaccine panel 'without changes.'
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