On April 9, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. published a new charter for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would alter the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
The charter was published in response to a federal judge blocking most of the changes that RFK’s ACIP made regarding vaccine recommendations. The judge blocked these changes on the basis that most of the ACIP members lacked the qualifications to make decisions regarding vaccines (RFK Jr. is also unqualified to be Health and Human Services secretary, because is not a doctor or scientist, and otherwise does not have any formal qualifications to hold power over public health).
The changes in question “may allow Mr. Kennedy to reconstitute the committee with some or all of its previous members and resuscitate at least some of their decisions.” Another document outlined a plan by ACIP liberalize qualifications for its members “to include biostatistics, toxicology, immunology, family medicine and nursing.” Liaisons to ACIP, as outlined by the April 9 document, include anti-vaccine organizations such as the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Physicians for Informed Consent, and the Independent Medical Alliance. The document, without providing evidence that it is a serious problem, emphasizes expertise in “vaccine safety” and “recovery from serious vaccine injuries” among ACIP members.
These revisions stem from a petition by Aaron Siri, an ally of RFK who challenged vaccines in court. His petition also called for two of the seventeen ACIP members to include advocates for supposed vaccine injuries. In another petition, he sought to minimize the importance of polio, tetanus, whooping cough, and meningitis vaccines by making them optional.
These changes were not based on a scientific understanding vaccine, or on any scientific evidence that suggests that taking fewer vaccines would improve the health of Americans.
