Washington: The Trump administration has updated the charter of a key federal vaccine advisory committee in ways that may increase the voices of anti-vaccine activists, the latest in a series of moves that critics say are undermining confidence in life-saving shots.
The changes published Thursday come after a recent legal defeat that has at least temporarily halted meetings of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which for decades has recommended how best to use the nation’s vaccines.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, ousted all the members of that committee soon after becoming the nation’s top health official and replaced them with his own picks. The revamped panel then declined to recommend COVID-19 vaccines even for high-risk populations and voted to stop recommending most newborn hepatitis B shots. Separately, under Kennedy, the administration also narrowed the childhood vaccine schedule.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other health groups sued to block those steps and last month a federal judge agreed. The administration has indicated it planned to appeal but has not yet done so.
The committee, known as ACIP, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically follows its recommendations. Those recommendations, in turn, have long guided state vaccine requirements for schools and whether health insurance covers the shots. Its charter – essentially governing rules – is routinely renewed every two years with little fanfare.
The new charter broadens qualifications for panel members that would allow the inclusion of Kennedy allies. While ACIP has long focused on vaccine safety, the updated charter also echoes wording of vaccine critics about focusing on possible harms, such as studying “gaps in vaccine safety research” and considering “cumulative effects” of shots, which are considered settled science. It would also have the panel consider other countries’ vaccination schedules.
The changes reflect “a continued effort to do more of the same things to undermine ACIP, undermine vaccine policy” and public confidence, said Richard H. Hughes IV, an attorney representing the AAP.
The charter’s renewal deadline coincided with the lawsuit proceedings, but Hughes said it doesn’t resolve the legal challenge.
“The ACIP charter renewal and its publication are routine statutory requirements and do not signal any broader policy shift,” said Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon.
