Former vaccine panel ousted by RFK Jr. says scientific rigor is "rapidly eroding"
All 17 experts who were ousted from a government panel on vaccine recommendations last month are speaking out against what the panel has become under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership.
In a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday, titled "The Path Forward for Vaccine Policy in the United States," the former members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices described a "seismic disruption" to the vaccine recommendation process in the U.S.
"The abrupt dismantling of the rigorously vetted process and the replacement of the Committee with an inexperienced and biased panel has engendered fundamental distrust in the Committee's vital work," they wrote. "The nation now faces a scenario in which the rigor and discipline of these vaccine recommendation processes are rapidly eroding."
Last month, Kennedy said he was "retiring" all members of the committee, known as ACIP, in order to replace them with his own picks. His new panel includes several allies he has worked with closely over the years and some members with a history as vaccine critics.
"A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science," Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal at the time. His move was criticized by major groups including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The former committee members also disputed Kennedy's claim that "historical corruption at ACIP" led to his decision. In their piece, the former members laid out how they adhered to "well-defined and stringent conflict of interest standards," in which members had to disclose any conflicts of interest before and throughout their time serving and could not vote on any issue where a conflict was identified.
In the journal article, they note that the committee's decisions helped ensure "a cohesive set of recommendations" for health care providers, insurance companies and American families to rely on, and they express concern that without it, "lack of coordination is likely to cause confusion for providers and the public, vaccine-administration errors, decreased uptake of vaccines, and further erosion of an already damaged public trust."
"An alternative to the Committee should be established quickly and — if necessary — independently from the federal government," they urged.
In a statement to CBS News Thursday, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, "The old ACIP members have it wrong, just like their rubber-stamped decisions on COVID vaccines."
"Secretary Kennedy has restored public trust through his reconstitution of ACIP with highly credentialed medical doctors and public health experts committed to evidence-based medicine, gold standard science, and common sense," Nixon's statement continued. "By replacing vaccine groupthink with a diversity of perspectives, Secretary Kennedy is strengthening the integrity of the advisory process guiding immunization policy in this country."
The American Medical Association, the largest organization of physicians in the U.S., issued a statement earlier this week expressing "deep concern" about potential changes to another panel of experts overseen by Kennedy — the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The AMA's statement came after The Wall Street Journal reported Kennedy planned to replace the medical experts on the task force, whose recommendations help guide insurance coverage and doctors' decisions about a range of preventive health measures like cancer screenings.