The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC’s) vaccine advisory committee, which helps determine the agency's official immunization recommendations, was once admired around the world for its evidence-based, deliberative review of medical science.
But public health experts yesterday warned people not to trust the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which will meet today and tomorrow (December 4-5) to discuss changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. The panel's members were handpicked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, after he fired all 17 of its previous members in June.
ACIP's recommendations, which heavily influence insurance coverage, can affect access to life-saving vaccinations that have virtually eliminated diseases that once killed or disabled thousands of children a year.
Committee ‘stacked with anti-vaccine activists’
"This new version of ACIP has been stacked with anti-vaccine activists who either are incurious and have no interest in the science, or are unable to understand the science," said Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, who spoke at a webinar organized by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
ACIP now "is purely a platform to promote pseudoscience," said Hotez, co-developer of a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine.
ACIP is scheduled to vote today on the hepatitis B vaccine, the first vaccine to prevent cancer, which has been routinely given to newborns during their first 24 hours of life since 1991. The vaccine has been spectacularly successful, reducing the number of hepatitis infections in this generation by 99%.
At its September meeting, ACIP discussed delaying the first dose of the vaccine—a move that experts say would leave children vulnerable to a lifelong infection—but tabled the vote for another time.
Tomorrow, members are slated to discuss the timing and composition of vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule, which have long been targets of anti-vaccine groups.
The nation is living through "a very dark chapter in the history of American biomedical science," Hotez said. "When you watch the ACIP proceedings, remember that there's going to be a lot of fact-free information presented. Interpret it accordingly."
‘Prebunking’ vaccine misinformation
A number of public health experts, including epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, have made efforts to "prebunk" vaccine myths that they expect to be mentioned at the meeting.
Prebunking can help inoculate people against misinformation by providing evidence-based information in advance, said Rochelle Walensky, former CDC director and cofounder of the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP), which has produced comprehensive reviews of vaccine safety and effectiveness. The VIP is an initiative of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News.
In anticipation of the ACIP meeting, the VIP published a review of 400 studies of the hepatitis B vaccine earlier this week, concluding there is no reason to delay the first dose of the vaccine.
When you watch the ACIP proceedings, remember that there's going to be a lot of fact-free information presented. Interpret it accordingly.
The VIP hopes to "empower people with the proper information, complete information, and also the uncertainties of that information," said Walensky, the group's medical director and a professor at Harvard University. "We have to be very honest about what those uncertainties are."
The Trump administration has questioned vaccine safety, even removing evidence-based information about vaccines and autism from the CDC website. Former CDC Director Susan Monarez, PhD, testified at a Senate committee meeting that Kennedy claimed CDC officials are “killing children and they don't care."
Such statements have been made with "an intent to confuse and undermine" trust in vaccine safety, Walensky said.
"There's a lot of gaslighting going on by the heads of the agencies right now," including Kennedy, said Hotez.
"How many times have we heard, 'Now we're going to restore gold standard science to the FDA or to NIH or CDC?'" Hotez asked. "Those agencies have always practiced gold standard science. In fact, they've been international role models for practicing gold standard science….What they're really saying is they now want to promote a pseudoscience agenda."
A spokesperson for HHS did not respond by deadline.
