HHS and the CDC have announced the addition of “five new members to [ACIP], just days ahead of the group’s next meeting.” CIDRAP has the news.
The announcement confirms the five newly appointed members, whose additions had been rumored over the past several weeks. They join the seven members named to ACIP by HHS secretary Kennedy in June, when he “fired the 17 sitting members of the group, saying a ‘clean sweep’ was needed to restore public confidence in vaccines. He then named seven new members with comparatively little experience in immunology and vaccinology, several of whom share his anti-vaccine views.”
Some of the new members announced today also “appear to align with Kennedy’s views on COVID-19 vaccines and the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Kirk Milhoan, for instance, is a “senior fellow at the anti-MRNA Independent Medical Alliance and has claimed that COVID vaccines pose more harm than benefit.” Catherine Stein “told Ohio lawmakers that health officials in the state were inflating COVID-19 death and hospitalization numbers and has made other assertions downplaying the pandemic.” Additionally, Evelyn Griffin “has expressed vaccine skepticism and testified against Louisiana’s decision to add COVID-19 vaccines to the school immunization schedule.”
It is unclear at this point whether the new members will participate in the ACIP meeting to be held on September 18 and 19, but a spokesperson from the HHS “told Reuters they will be taking part.”
