'Docs Should Turn Away From ACIP's Vaccine Recommendations, Ex-Member Says'

 A recently ousted member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said Thursday that she is recommending that physicians go to sources other than ACIP for vaccine scheduling recommendations.

"It puts us in a very dangerous place if we can't trust the national recommendations made by ACIP," said Helen Chu, MD, professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington, in Seattle. "We do have to start turning to other sources. So what I've been telling people is that they can go to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for pregnant persons, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. These groups are still working to review the evidence and to put out science-based recommendations."

On Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 ACIP membersopens in a new tab or window, including Chu, saying in an HHS press releaseopens in a new tab or window that the agency is "prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda." The move was widely decried by public health advocates, one of whom called it "reckless, shortsighted, and severely harmful."

"My fear is that we are going to turn into a country where each state is going to have to make its own decisions," Chu said during an online press conference hosted by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "Fortunately, Washington state is a place where we have experts and scientists who work together. There are other states where this may not exist, or where they may not choose to recommend vaccines. So that is going to create a lot of chaos."

"We do have to start turning to other sources" besides ACIP for vaccine recommendations, said Helen Chu, MD, of the University of Washington in Seattle. (Photo courtesy of Sen. Patty Murray's office)

On Wednesday, Kennedy named eight new membersopens in a new tab or window to ACIP; several have made controversial statements about vaccines and about COVID. One new member, Robert Malone, MD, an early pioneer of mRNA technology, questioned the severity of COVIDopens in a new tab or window and suggested that millions of Americans were hypnotized into taking the COVID-19 shots; another, Vicky Pebsworth, PhD, RN, of the University of Michigan, is a board member with the vaccine-choice group National Vaccine Information Centeropens in a new tab or window (formerly Dissatisfied Parents Together), a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation.

Asked her opinion of the new members, Chu said that she didn't know enough about them to comment. "I can tell you that the members in the past have been people who have worked extensively in the vaccine space, who have been devoting their lives to vaccine policy," she said. "And so I hope that the new members will do the same, will take this very seriously, and will make sure that the decisions they make are for the good of the American public."

Chu also was asked about the vetting process she underwent to get on the committee. "For me, the process took 2 years," she said. "We are initially asked to apply to be on the committee, then we submit letters of recommendation, then all of our credentials are reviewed, and then we go through an extensive process of reviewing our conflicts of interest and making sure that we are unbiased when we serve on this committee."

For her part, Murray was very vocal in her opposition to Kennedy's actions, calling his decision to remove all the ACIP members "dangerous [and] practically unthinkable." "He's already packing the panel with people who advocated letting COVID rip through our communities, who serve as board members of vaccine disinformation groups, who promoted conspiracies and quack treatments for COVID and measles -- and he's just getting started. It is really just about impossible to underscore how reckless and unprecedented this is."

"Let's be clear: RFK Jr. is not just crossing a red line for public health," she continued. "He is sprinting into dangerous, uncharted territory in support of totally deranged conspiracies, and he is dragging us all along with him. He is putting our communities and our families in harm's way ... These recommendations [from ACIP] are trusted by healthcare providers as they talk to their patients and discuss their personal health decisions, and these recommendations affect whether health plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, are required to cover vaccines at zero cost to patients, [and whether] insurance companies can force Americans to foot the bill for vaccines that keep them safe."

Asked by MedPage Today whether the Senate was planning to do anything in response to Kennedy's actions, Murray said, "My Republican colleagues who voted for him need to speak up now, loudly, and they need to tell Secretary Kennedy that this is not acceptable. We need to put in place the members that were there that were vetted, as you just heard, not people that he has picked overnight, that we're just getting some of the names now, and they have some very serious background [issues] that I'm worried about."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/vaccines/116051