Biden administration stacked vaccine advisory committee with new members

 Before leaving office, President Biden’s health secretary approved the appointments of eight new candidates to a critical committee that helps set U.S. vaccination policy — a burst of activity within a matter of a few months that could, in theory, make it more difficult for the Trump administration to shape the panel with its own appointees, several sources have told STAT. 

The late-in-the day move to fill four new spots on the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices, and approve replacements for four members whose terms expire at the end of June, was motivated by a desire to try to insulate the scientific integrity of the panel from the incoming administration, one source told STAT, stacking it with people who, unlike President Trump’s pick as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have not expressed skepticism about vaccines.

“It was very intentional,” a former senior Health and Human Services Department official said. “It was our goal to fill every vacancy on every [federal advisory committee] the department has, with particular focus on ones like ACIP where maintenance of our scientific expertise was critical.”

https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/31/vaccine-policy-acip-members-appointees-hhs/