On June 9, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), removed all seventeen members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory committee on immunization.
This committee was supposed to meet as early as June 25. Though new members have not even been announced yet, HHS stated that the meeting will proceed as planned.
Predictably, this decision proves that RFK Jr. lied to Senator Bill Cassidy during the confirmation hearings to cynically obtain his vote.
The decision directly contradicts a promise Mr. Kennedy made to Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, during his confirmation hearings, when he said he would not alter the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
The New York Times
In a column for The Wall Street Journal, RFK Jr. lied that the seventeen members he had terminated received massive funding from pharmaceutical companies, establishing a conflict of interest. In reality, all ACIP members are screened for potential conflicts of interest, “and they cannot hold stocks or serve on advisory boards or bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers.” The anti-corruption standards for ACIP members is even higher than those for members of Congress, who may own stocks. In the rare case that ACIP members do have a conflict of interest, they must recuse themselves from the vote.
This decision to, in all likelihood, replace ACIP with hacks who will tow RFK Jr.’s line on vaccines already has consequences for pregnant women. The CDC announced that it would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant women, throwing “future insurance coverage for the shots into confusion…” Pregnant women have been turned away from pharmacies. This was a matter that ACIP was supposed to clarify this month.
ACIP members are supposed to serve four-year terms. Thirteen of the seventeen members were just hired last year.
