Secretary Kennedy removes all members of the US vaccine policy committee

Yesterday, Secretary Kennedy removed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). This is the committee that reviews the vaccines that have been approved by the FDA and then makes recommendations to the CDC, who sets our vaccine schedules for adults and children. He has argued that there were undisclosed conflicts of interest (but these are all published on the CDC website), that the ACIP is paid by big pharma (but an investigation in March found no evidence of this), and that the committee "rubber-stamps" all vaccines (there are numerous examples of the committee voting against a vaccine).

Secretary Kennedy plans to replace all the members with new members currently under consideration. As the committee is set to meet again on June 25th, one question is if they will have enough time to review all relevant material before the meeting. The other obvious question is if he will name members who believe in vaccines and have science backgrounds, or if his members will be political appointees who share his anti-vaccine views. Of note, during his confirmation hearings, Kennedy promised Sen. Bill Cassidy (also a physician) that he would not alter the ACIP.

Historically, the policies set by the ACIP have been guided by science, not politics. Debates about vaccines are very open; meetings are live-streamed, all relevant data is posted online, any conflicts of interest are disclosed and public comment is sought after. Hopefully, this next meeting with the yet-to-be-named new members will also be available for viewing and review. Only then will we be able to determine whether or not this process will continue to be non-partisan and based on scientific knowledge, or if the nation's vaccine policy will be set by those with a different agenda.