15 hours ago
Former CDC staffers ring alarm bells over decisions of new US vaccine panel
Every week for a number of weeks, current and former employees of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have been blowing whistles and banging drums at a street intersection near the group's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. They're protesting changes to the US Department of Health now led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, saying that he has brought his long history of vaccine scepticism into his role as the nation's top health official. Among the demonstrators is infectious diseases physician Peter Cegielski. "There have been rallies here every Tuesday maybe since March... The public needs to mobilise because, I mean, there's a clown show running this country and DHHS." The CDC protesters' appearance on the Atlanta corner this week was timed to coincide with the first meeting of the reconstituted US panel known as ACIP or the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices. Kennedy abruptly fired all 17 previous members earlier this month after accusing them without evidence of conflicts of interest, replacing them with seven handpicked others. Among them is new Committee chair Dr Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who publicly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns and was fired from Harvard for refusing to take a COVID vaccine. Dr Kulldorff was one of five members at the meeting to vote for a recommendation that people aged 6 months and older get a flu vaccination only using a single dose formula which is thimerosal-free. "Even if the amount available in the vaccine, maybe that amount is safe - but does not amount for exposed to be exposed to mercury from other sources. So it's cumulative and there is a need. And if we care about public health we should try to minimise exposure to mercury." The reason why that's important is because the panel's recommendations influence the official US immunisation schedule, determine insurance coverage for vaccines, and act as an encouragement for people to get vaccinated. Thimerosal is widely used in lower income countries because they are more likely to use lower cost multidose containers that must be punctured repeatedly, raising the risk of contamination which thimerosal helps to prevent. But the preservative has also been at the centre of controversies and myths about vaccines for decades, with Robert F Kennedy involved in some of that debate. In 2014, when Kennedy was an environmental lawyer, he appeared on Fox 5 New York to promote a book he had published called 'Thimerosal' that alleged evidence had been covered up showing it could cause brain problems, including autism. "You know I've had all six of my children vaccinated. I want to see everybody taking their vaccines. We need full coverage. People don't take them (vaccines) because they no longer believe in the CDC. They can see the science." The CDC says it conducted nine separate studies since 2003 that found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, and that multiple scientific studies have found no evidence of a link either. The CDC was not given an opportunity to present evidence before the committee's vote - but Lyn Redwood, the former president of what is now known as Children's Health Defense, an antivaccine group founded by Secretary Kennedy - did air her concerns about thimerosal. "Thimerosal is recognised as a developmental and reproductive toxicant, and is listed as a chemical in the California Proposition 65 list since 1990." Secretary Kennedy has maintained he has always just asked questions that are justifiable and necessary, arguing that the public's trust in vaccines has waned because those questions have not been answered satisfactorily. "We're living now in a time of upheaval, a time of popular revolt against established institutions that have lost the public trust - and that includes medicine. President Trump and I are committed to earning it back." But at least two CDC staff members have left over the changes, and major medical experts and former members of the panel have also expressed concern over its reconstitution. Georgia State Senator for District 42 Elena Parent says the panel is essentially embedding false information and vaccine scepticism into national policy. "This is the very body that has guided our nation's policies for vaccines for over 60 years. And by the way, this is what everyone said when they said 'do not confirm him'. Do not confirm him as the secretary of health. Anyone who knew anything about public health and vaccines said 'no'. These guy has peddled disinformation for years. And what did they do? Fell in line behind Trump and all the rest of them and put him in. And the worst fears are now coming true with this assault on the ACIP." The Secretary's views have also received a cool reception at a Brussels fundraising dinner for the GAVI global vaccine alliance, a group that facilitates immunisations in lower-income countries. In a video recording played to the gathering, Kennedy cast doubt on the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines — which the World Health Organisation and other agencies have long deemed to be safe and effective. He also announced the US will be cutting its funding to GAVI, on the basis that they have allegedly silenced dissenting views and what he has described as legitimate questions about vaccine safety. "Consider the best science available even when the science contradicts established paradigms. Until that happens, the United States won't contribute more to GAVI." GAVI says that's ridiculous. Chairman of the Board Jose Manuel Barroso says the organisation has multiple safeguards and processes in place to prioritise the health and safety of children. "Gavi is indeed a unique organisation in global health with a public-private model that has brought together national governments, donors, vaccine manufacturers, scientific institutes and grassroot organisations to vaccinate more than 1 billion children in low income and middle income countries. And I have to say that Gavi has done it always following the best scientific advice." Doctors Without Borders is among the medical groups to say they believe countless children will die from vaccine-preventable diseases as a result of the U-S withdrawing support for Gavi. The charity's global health advocacy director, Mihir Mankad, has called it cruel and reckless to invoke misleading and inaccurate claims about vaccine safety as the pretext for cutting all global vaccine funding. But GAVI says it will be able to continue much of its work, and has plenty of other willing donors. Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said in a statement that Australia is sending $386 million over five years, while European Union President Ursula von der Leyen has also committed money. "Today I am pleased to pledge 360 million Euros to GAVI at this summit, and this is part of a total Team Europe pledge of 2 billion Euros or even more." Meanwhile, back in the US, some doctors are taking matters into their own hands. The influential American Academy of Paediatrics boycotted A-C-I-P's first meeting in protest, saying it will now publish its own vaccine schedule for children and do so independently of the vaccine panel, calling it 'no longer a credible process.' And the CDC demonstrators - which include former Division of Overdose Prevention public servant, Abby Tighe - say they will keep ringing their protest bells on that Atlanta corner for as long as they can.
"Let's make it a non political conversation. We have to do the work to de-politicise public health. And I know it's hard and it sucks, but we have to do it because people's lives are at stake."
