Organizations and Lawmakers Voice Unease After Abrupt Restructure of ACIP

A number of professional organizations and lawmakers have issued statements about the HHS’s abrupt announcement that they will be restructuring the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

CIDRAP reported on statements from such organizations as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians (ACP). The latter wrote that the announcement will “seriously erode public confidence in our government’s ability to ensure the health of the American public and it will endanger the safety, welfare, and lives of our patients. We call on the administration to immediately reverse course.”

Jerome Adams, who was the U.S. Surgeon General during President Trump’s first term, also “voiced distress,” writing that ACIP’s recommendations have saved “countless lives by guiding vaccine policy with transparency and scientific rigor.”

Kennedy’s move to reorient ACIP also comes after promises made during his confirmation hearing not to touch the committee. Bill Cassidy, a senator from Louisiana who requested the promise from Kennedy, said that he now fears that “ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.”

A bill had also introduced in the House of Representatives last week aiming to protect the current childhood vaccine schedule in the U.S. It proposed “the HHS secretary…adopt the official vaccine decision as set by ACIP. If changes are made, it required Kennedy to publish the basis for the agency action, including an explanation as to how the action is supported by the best available, peer-reviewed scientific evidence.”

Other organizations voicing their displeasure with the move by Kennedy include IDSA, who called the move “reckless, shortsighted, and severely harmful.” SHEA also urged HHS to “prioritize transparency, scientific rigor, and public health expertise as it considers these changes.”