Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he’s gutting the panel that advises on vaccination safety and efficacy, arguing that it’s another step toward restoring public trust.
Kennedy, whose department has already made several moves to shake up vaccination research and recommendations, said he’s “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, known as ACIP.
“Today, we are taking a bold step in restoring public trust by totally reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP),” RFK said in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “We are retiring the 17 current members of the committee, some of whom were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration.”
Kennedy said he had to remove these panel members or the Trump administration wouldn’t be able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028.
RFK Jr. suggested the panel effectively works as a rubber-stamp and is plagued with conflicts of interest.
ACIP, he highlighted, has never recommended against a vaccination it’s been asked to advise on, even vaccines that were later withdrawn for safety reasons. “It has failed to scrutinize vaccine products given to babies and pregnant women,” he wrote.
“To make matters worse, the groups that inform ACIP meet behind closed doors, violating the legal and ethical principle of transparency crucial to maintaining public trust,” RFK said.
Kennedy cited a 2000 investigation that found enforcement of ACIP conflict-of-interest rules were “weak to nonexistent.”
