CDC Bars Medical and Professional Groups From ACIP

The CDC has essentially fired some of the medical and professional organizations that assist the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in evaluating evidence and offering input on vaccine recommendations, accusing them of being biased.

There are 30 such liaison organizations that provide year-round assistance to ACIP work groups who prepare evidence and briefing books for voting panel members to review before making decisions. The organizations include medical societies, county and state health officials, epidemiologists, nurses, public health and immunization groups, pharmacists, and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

At least some of the 30 organizations received an email from the ACIP secretariat. They were informed that “by definition, liaison organizations are special interest groups and therefore are expected to have a ‘bias’ based on their constituency and/or population that they represent.” The email said that “ACIP work groups will no longer include liaison organizations,” but that “approved liaison organizations” could continue to participate in open meetings.

One group that received the email, the American Pharmacists Association, said its representatives had voluntarily served as scientific advisors to ACIP work groups for more than 25 years. “To hear after two decades of providing boundless scientific and clinical expertise to protect the public and keep patients safe that liaison organizations are considered ‘special interest groups’ and therefore expected to have ‘bias’ is disgraceful and disrespectful,” the group wrote in a statement.

Similarly, the American Medical Association (AMA) and seven other groups said in a statement that the organizations were “deeply disappointed and alarmed” that they were being accused of bias “and therefore barred from reviewing scientific data and informing the development of vaccine recommendations that have long helped ensure our nation’s vaccine program is safe, effective, and free from bias.”

The AMA was joined by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Physicians (ACP), American Geriatrics Society, American Osteopathic Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and National Medical Association.

When asked by Medscape Medical News to comment on the removals, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said, “Under the old ACIP, outside pressure to align with vaccine orthodoxy limited asking the hard questions.” Previous ACIP members — HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, fired all 17 in June — “were plagued by conflicts of interest, influence, and bias,” said the HHS spokesperson.

“Experts will continue to be included based on relevant experience and expertise, not because of what organization they are with,” said the HHS spokesperson.

It is not clear whether any other groups were barred, although a spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is one of the 30 liaison organizations, told Medscape Medical News that it had not received any communication from ACIP as of press time.

HHS did not answer repeated requests for clarification on which or how many groups would be barred from work groups.

The AMA — and many of the same organizations removed from the ACIP liaison positions, including the AAP and the IDSA — were among those who condemned the firings of the 17 ACIP members. The AAP, ACP, and IDSA also were among a handful of organizations that sued HHS in early July seeking to overturn ACIP guidance that removed a recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and changed guidance for children from a recommendation to shared decision-making.

The 17 former voting members of ACIP expressed their dismay with HHS actions in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial published on July 30.

“The rigor and discipline of these vaccine recommendation processes are rapidly eroding,” they wrote, adding that HHS had “abruptly changed vaccine policy through social media postings and publications in news media.”

The government “circumvented the standard methodology, whereby committees of scientists and clinicians conduct rigorous scientific review and open deliberation to make vaccine recommendations, which are published with clear justification of the decision-making process,” they wrote.

The authors predicted a future of ever-declining trust in vaccines; rising circulation of misinformation; and confusion and uncertainty among clinicians, parents, and patients.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent, has now opened an inquiry into the firings of the ACIP members. Sanders — along with seven Democratic senators — wrote to Kennedy on July 29, seeking more information about his actions, including what was characterized as “the administration’s attempts to muzzle scientists.”

The senators also sought more information on the seven new ACIP members who have been appointed so far, including how they were vetted, and documentation that they completed required ethics forms.

Alicia Ault is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in many health and science publications, including Smithsonian.com. You can find her on X @aliciaault and on Bluesky @aliciaault.bsky.social.