Originally published by our sister publication Infectious Disease Special Edition
By Marie Rosenthal, MS
Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.) said the regularly scheduled Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) June meeting should be delayed because its members “do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology” and therefore are not prepared to offer recommendations for the country’s vaccination program.
On June 9, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he had dismissed all 17 members of the ACIP, which guides the CDC on vaccine recommendations. This has been met with near-universal condemnation from top infectious disease experts and medical organizations.
The purge ran counter to the promises that Mr. Kennedy made during his Senate confirmation hearings. At the time, Mr. Cassidy, who was one of the deciding votes for confirmation, announced that Mr. Kennedy had “committed that he would work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems, and not establish parallel systems. If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”
Mr. Kennedy appointed eight new panel members. Although many are physicians, they are not infectious disease specialists, and many have expressed anti-vaccine views.
Mr. Cassidy said the new panel lacks experience in studying new vaccine technologies, such as messenger RNA, and “may even have a preconceived bias against them.”
He agreed that robust and transparent scientific discussion is important, but it must be rooted in evidence and understanding. During his hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee before his confirmation, Messrs. Kennedy and Cassidy got into an argument over whether hepatitis B and measles vaccines caused autism, with Mr. Kennedy refusing to say under oath that they did not. The senator is co-chair of the HELP Committee.
“Wednesday’s meeting should not proceed with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations,” Mr. Cassidy said on X, the social media platform.
“The meeting should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation—as required by law—including those with more direct and relevant expertise.
“Otherwise, ACIP’s recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this administration’s efforts.”