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CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
HHS further constrains certain vaccine advisers to the CDC, limiting their input in evidence reviews
In a further jolt to the process of reviewing and recommending vaccines at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another group of outside advisers to the agency was abruptly sidelined this week. In an email sent late Thursday evening, which was obtained by CNN, members of roughly 30 medical and public health organizations who serve as liaison members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, were told they could no longer participate in the committee's crucial workgroups. Liaison members don't vote at ACIP's public meetings on vaccine recommendations, but they can participate by asking questions and commenting on presentations. Behind the scenes, they have also historically done important work undertaking detailed evidence reviews of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines that helps to inform the group's votes. Those reviews happen in subcommittees called workgroups. As of late last year, ACIP had 11 active workgroups. In addition to studying scientific research, workgroups consider issues of public health importance like what age groups might get the most benefit from a vaccine, what an immunization costs and whether it will be accessible to people who should get it. Workgroups also help craft the language of the recommendations that are voted on by the full committee. Votes are typically held during ACIP's three public meetings each year. If ACIP approves a recommendation, it's forwarded to the CDC director for consideration. The director isn't bound by the committee's recommendation but usually follows it. Liaisons include groups like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Pharmacists Association. Members also represent nurses and public health officials, typically groups that play a significant role in delivering vaccinations. The latest move comes more than a month after US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 voting members of ACIP, replacing them days later with eight of his own picks, many of whom have cast doubt on the safety of vaccines and public policy around vaccination. One member later dropped out during the required financial review. The email sent Thursday called the liaison members 'special interest groups' that are 'expected to have a 'bias' based on their constituency and/or population they represent.' 'It is important that the ACIP workgroup activities remain free of any influence from any special interest groups so ACIP workgroups will no longer include Liaison organizations,' the email said. Andrew Nixon, director of communications for HHS, said in a statement Friday that 'Under the old ACIP, outside pressure to align with vaccine orthodoxy limited asking the hard questions. The old ACIP members were plagued by conflicts of interest, influence and bias. We are fulfilling our promise to the American people to never again allow those conflicts to taint vaccine recommendations.' Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who has been participating in ACIP for 40 years as both a voting member and a liaison member, said the move to exclude professional organizations from the process of making vaccine recommendations was shortsighted. 'The organizations have a certain ownership in the recommendations because they participate,' Schaffner said. That participation increases buy-in from different stakeholder groups, which helps ACIP recommendations become the accepted standards of medical practice. Without that participation, Schaffner said, there's a risk that groups will make their own vaccine recommendations, which could lead to conflicting and confusing advice. In fact, some outside organizations, including the Vaccine Integrity Project, have already started the process of making independent vaccination recommendations. Shaffner said he also takes issue with the idea that liaison representatives are biased, which he says implies a conflict of interest. 'Every work group member, no matter who they are, is vetted for a conflict of interest,' he said, and that vetting process has only become more stringent over time as society has become more attuned to the problem. 'I have to turn down opportunities because they would interfere with my being on a work group, and that's something I do, or did,' he said. ACIP's charter spells out that some 30 specific groups should hold non-voting seats on the committee. It also allows the HHS secretary to appoint other liaison members as necessary to carry out the functions of the committee. On Friday, eight organizations that are liaisons to the committee said in a joint statement that they were 'deeply disappointed' and 'alarmed' to be barred from reviewing scientific data and informing the development of vaccine recommendations. 'To remove our deep medical expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible, dangerous to our nation's health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccines,' said the statement, which was sent by the American Medical Association. New outside experts may be invited to participate in the workgroups as needed based on their expertise, according to an HHS official who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they had not been authorized to share the information, but such inclusion will no longer be based on organizational affiliation. 'Many of these groups don't like us,' the official said. 'They've publicly attacked us.'
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
HHS further constrains certain vaccine advisers to the CDC, limiting their input in evidence reviews
Vaccines Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow In a further jolt to the process of reviewing and recommending vaccines at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another group of outside advisers to the agency was abruptly sidelined this week. In an email sent late Thursday evening, which was obtained by CNN, members of roughly 30 medical and public health organizations who serve as liaison members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, were told they could no longer participate in the committee's crucial workgroups. Liaison members don't vote at ACIP's public meetings on vaccine recommendations, but they can participate by asking questions and commenting on presentations. Behind the scenes, they have also historically done important work undertaking detailed evidence reviews of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines that helps to inform the group's votes. Those reviews happen in subcommittees called workgroups. As of late last year, ACIP had 11 active workgroups. In addition to studying scientific research, workgroups consider issues of public health importance like what age groups might get the most benefit from a vaccine, what an immunization costs and whether it will be accessible to people who should get it. Workgroups also help craft the language of the recommendations that are voted on by the full committee. Votes are typically held during ACIP's three public meetings each year. If ACIP approves a recommendation, it's forwarded to the CDC director for consideration. The director isn't bound by the committee's recommendation but usually follows it. Liaisons include groups like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Pharmacists Association. Members also represent nurses and public health officials, typically groups that play a significant role in delivering vaccinations. The latest move comes more than a month after US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 voting members of ACIP, replacing them days later with eight of his own picks, many of whom have cast doubt on the safety of vaccines and public policy around vaccination. One member later dropped out during the required financial review. The email sent Thursday called the liaison members 'special interest groups' that are 'expected to have a 'bias' based on their constituency and/or population they represent.' 'It is important that the ACIP workgroup activities remain free of any influence from any special interest groups so ACIP workgroups will no longer include Liaison organizations,' the email said. Andrew Nixon, director of communications for HHS, said in a statement Friday that 'Under the old ACIP, outside pressure to align with vaccine orthodoxy limited asking the hard questions. The old ACIP members were plagued by conflicts of interest, influence and bias. We are fulfilling our promise to the American people to never again allow those conflicts to taint vaccine recommendations.' Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who has been participating in ACIP for 40 years as both a voting member and a liaison member, said the move to exclude professional organizations from the process of making vaccine recommendations was shortsighted. 'The organizations have a certain ownership in the recommendations because they participate,' Schaffner said. That participation increases buy-in from different stakeholder groups, which helps ACIP recommendations become the accepted standards of medical practice. Without that participation, Schaffner said, there's a risk that groups will make their own vaccine recommendations, which could lead to conflicting and confusing advice. In fact, some outside organizations, including the Vaccine Integrity Project, have already started the process of making independent vaccination recommendations. Shaffner said he also takes issue with the idea that liaison representatives are biased, which he says implies a conflict of interest. 'Every work group member, no matter who they are, is vetted for a conflict of interest,' he said, and that vetting process has only become more stringent over time as society has become more attuned to the problem. 'I have to turn down opportunities because they would interfere with my being on a work group, and that's something I do, or did,' he said. ACIP's charter spells out that some 30 specific groups should hold non-voting seats on the committee. It also allows the HHS secretary to appoint other liaison members as necessary to carry out the functions of the committee. On Friday, eight organizations that are liaisons to the committee said in a joint statement that they were 'deeply disappointed' and 'alarmed' to be barred from reviewing scientific data and informing the development of vaccine recommendations. 'To remove our deep medical expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible, dangerous to our nation's health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccines,' said the statement, which was sent by the American Medical Association. New outside experts may be invited to participate in the workgroups as needed based on their expertise, according to an HHS official who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they had not been authorized to share the information, but such inclusion will no longer be based on organizational affiliation. 'Many of these groups don't like us,' the official said. 'They've publicly attacked us.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Patient, advocates worry shuttered mental health program for Toronto's Chinese community will reduce access
A Toronto woman and health advocates are worried the Chinese community will lose access to culturally sensitive mental health care after a specialized program at Toronto Western Hospital was shuttered and subsumed into a larger outpatient mental health service for underrepresented communities. But the University Health Network says the Asian Initiative in Mental Health (AIM) program hasn't shut down. Instead, it has been integrated into the larger program to provide care to more people, says Ishrat Husain, UHN's department head and program director for mental health. Joy Luk says the first time she heard AIM "had been closed" was in mid-July during an appointment with her psychiatrist, who warned her she might be switched to another physician. She says her doctor told her she could no longer access Cantonese-speaking psychotherapists, who were allegedly fired with the program's closure. While Husain confirmed there were some "staffing changes," he says patients will still have access to their psychiatrists. "I'm under great pressure, whether they'll stop my service [and] when?" Luk said. Luk says she saw more than 10 psychiatrists when she was admitted to Toronto Western in 2022 for struggles with depression. WATCH | UHN shutters mental health program that served Chinese community: She says many doctors did not understand the context of her experiences as a blind woman in her home country of Hong Kong. That all changed, she says, when she gained access to a psychiatrist who could speak Cantonese and understood the cultural nuances of the Chinese community through the AIM program. "It's so difficult to explain in English the deepest part of my mind," said Luk, who moved to Canada in 2021. "It's very important for a psychiatrist to understand the background and the underlying situation of a patient, especially, we Chinese have specific family teachings." Luk says the "one stop shop" service gave her access to Cantonese-speaking doctors, group therapies and other mental health supports, but now she's unsure how her care will change. Change meant to 'modernize' access to care: doctor UHN is hoping the change will shorten wait times for initial assessments from six months to a few weeks, says Husain. The outpatient program will have four Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking doctors, while AIM only had two, he says. "The change was to actually modernize and make our mental health program more responsive to the population that we're serving," he said. Once the program shift was announced, Husain says patients were individually contacted to answer questions and address any concerns. "Change can be difficult for a lot of folks," he said. "We've been doing outreach to patient groups, community partners, referring physicians as well to be able to, to quell some of that anxiety." Only hospital-based program for minorities in Toronto: psychiatrist But despite what Husain says about the program integration, psychiatrist Ted Lo says he considers AIM to be closed as it no longer has the same name, allegedly lost half of its staff and has left patients confused in the aftermath. Lo is with the RE-AIM coalition, a group that aims to consult with UHN to restore the program. He says UHN's response to AIM's closure is "all words." "The program that has run for 23 years has served a lot of Chinese patients, but not just serving them, but serving in a way that is culturally safe and effective," he said. AIM was the only hospital-based mental health program that served a specific minority population in Toronto, and likely all of Canada, says Lo. Josephine Wong, another member of the RE-AIM coalition, says the hospital should've consulted patients, staff and community partners prior to the change. "This kind of providing services to all is a sugar coated way to say that let's just get rid of those who cannot really voice for themselves and we just do whatever we want," she told CBC Radio's Metro Morning. Husain says UHN is happy to meet with RE-AIM to talk about their concerns, but asserts the program has "not gone away." Consultations were not held before the change as UHN felt it would have "minimal impact on patient care," he said.
