Senators probe RFK Jr.’s firing of vaccine panel – Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee said July 29 they are investigating Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to fire all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. 

Acting as HHS secretary, Mr. Kennedy said June 9 the department was reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, an independent panel that provides vaccine guidance to the CDC. 

The new ACIP — made up of seven members appointed by Mr. Kennedy — met June 25-26. They recommended Merck’s respiratory syncytial virus monoclonal antibody drug and voted against a preservative in some flu vaccines. 

“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Mr. Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. 

Mr. Sanders and seven Democratic senators on the HELP committee disagree. 

In a June 29 letter to Mr. Kennedy, the legislators said: “As your new ACIP makes recommendations based on pseudoscience, fewer and fewer Americans will have access to fewer and fewer vaccines. And as you give a platform to conspiracy theorists, and even promote their theories yourself, Americans will continue to lose confidence in whatever vaccines are still available.”

Healthcare industry groups, including the American Medical Association, said the overhaul of ACIP undermines public trust. 

In announcing their investigation, the senators said the removal and replacement of ACIP members “with individuals handpicked to advance your anti-vaccine agenda” was a “dangerous and unprecedented decision.” They asked Mr. Kennedy to share who else was involved in the decision and how the new members were chosen and vetted.