RFK Jr.’s new ACIP CDC vaccine panel to review long-approved shots

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s revamped government panel of vaccine advisors will start a review of long-approved shots in the U.S., the leader of the group said Wednesday in the first meeting with new members.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, will also review the childhood vaccination schedule. Earlier this month, Kennedy in a stunning step removed and replaced all members of the group, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ACIP members are independent medical and public health experts who review vaccine data and make recommendations that determine who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other efforts. But Kennedy appointed some vaccine critics, including Dr. Robert Malone, who could shape immunization policy and affect availability in the U.S. 

ACIP will create new work groups, which are staff that review published and unpublished data and develop recommendation options to present to the committee, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, the new chair of the panel, said during the meeting. One new work group will review the childhood vaccine schedule, while another will examine shots that have not been subject to reviews in more than seven years, he said.

The latter group may examine the universally recommended hepatitis B vaccine and ask whether it is “wise” to administer the shot to every newborn before they leave the hospital, Kulldorff added. He also said the group could review the combination measles, mumps and rubella shot, along with the chickenpox jab. Vaccine skeptics have questioned the safety of both shots.

“This was supposed to be a regular practice of the ACIP, but it has not been done in a thorough and systematic way. We will change that,” Kulldorff said.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, told reporters later Wednesday that reviewing the vaccine schedule has been “an anti-vaccine trope for many, many years.” O’Leary said many vaccines are “essentially always reviewed in real-time through a number of different mechanisms,” including several safety surveillance and disease surveillance tools.

The American Academy of Pediatrics did not participate in the ACIP meeting on Wednesday because “we view it as illegitimate,” O’Leary said. He added that the organization will continue to provide vaccine schedules for children independently of the CDC.

“What we’re seeing today, and if this were to continue, the medical providers, public health professionals, the entire country is no longer going to trust ACIP. That’s clear,” O’Leary said, saying the goal is to reinstate the 17 members that Kennedy fired and return to “a normal process.”

During a full-day meeting Wednesday in Atlanta, the panel evaluated data on Covid-19 vaccines and RSV shots. A vote on…