Health Professionals Condemn HHS Firing of ACIP Members

Health organizations and professional societies are expressing outrage over the firing of all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced on June 9 in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that he was “totally reconstituting” the ACIP, saying that all the current members had conflicts of interest and that they were beholden to vaccine makers. 

“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” wrote Kennedy.

There is no indication when new members will be named but the panel is due to meet June 25-27.

Susan Kressly, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that the organization was “deeply troubled and alarmed” by the firings. “We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines,” said Kressly, adding that the action, combined with Kennedy’s unilateral decision to recommend against COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and to require shared decision making for healthy children to get the vaccine, creates “confusion around proven vaccines.” 

Kennedy’s action “is a coup,” said American Public Health Association (APHA) Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin, MD, in a statement. “Today’s ACIP members are some of the most qualified individuals to evaluate vaccines,” said Benjamin, adding that they “were vetted for conflicts of interest prior to appointment.” The APHA leader said a new slate of members chosen by Kennedy “will be suspect and likely mistrusted.”

American College of Physicians (ACP) President Jason M. Goldman, MD, said in a statement that the firings “coupled with the recent, preemptive actions HHS took on the COVID-19 vaccines that circumvented the standard, transparent vaccine review process, interferes with the practice of evidence-based medicine and destabilizes a trusted source and its evidence-based process.” Goldman, who is also the ACP liaison to ACIP, said he believed Kennedy’s actions will “seriously erode public confidence in our government’s ability to ensure the health of the American public.”

The American Medical Association also weighed in. President Bruce A. Scott, MD, said in a statement that ACIP had for generations “been a trusted national source of science- and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease.” The firings “undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” he wrote, adding that “with an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who was a pivotal vote in confirming Kennedy, posted on X that “now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.” Kennedy added that he’d talked with Kennedy, “and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-Washington), a pediatrician, wrote on Bluesky that the firings paved the way for Kennedy “to make up his own recommendations or fill those positions with conspiracy theorists and social media influencers.” Schrier said that she had introduced a bill on June 5 to make ACIP a “legally required organization” that would be made up of only those with relevant scientific expertise.

Conflicts Alleged Without Evidence

Kennedy has repeatedly said that the ACIP is rife with conflicts and used that as justification for the firings. The ACIP “has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, adding that, “Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies.”

He did not provide any evidence for that statement. The members’ bios and disclosures show no direct industry funding, which is also not allowed for ACIP panelists.

The allegations about the panel’s integrity “are completely unfounded,” said Infectious Diseases Society of America President Tina Tan, MD, in a statement. “ACIP is a highly qualified group of experts that has always operated with transparency and a commitment to protecting the public’s health,” she added.

The ACIP’s policies and procedures require members to file financial disclosures when they are appointed and then annually during their 4-year terms. Conflicts are vetted by HHS officials. Members also disclose potential conflicts at the outset of every meeting. Panelists with a relevant conflict must recuse themselves — often it is because they were an investigator on a vaccine trial or served on a data monitoring board. Those roles are considered acceptable under ACIP rules, however. 

Panelists can’t be employed directly by industry, nor hold stock, or be entitled to or receive royalties or other compensation on a vaccine or vaccine process. They have to resign advisory or consulting roles during their ACIP tenure. They also cannot serve as an expert witness involving litigation with a vaccine maker or accept honoraria or travel reimbursement from a vaccine maker.

When Kennedy came into office, he had the CDC establish a “conflicts of interest disclosure” website, which essentially compiled ACIP panelists’ roles as investigators or data monitoring board members. 

Kennedy “has worked for more than a decade to sow distrust in vaccines,” Jennifer Nuzzo, DrPh, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, wrote on BlueSky.

In a later post, she wrote, that her “biggest worry is this is the start of a process to erode Americans’ access to vaccines.”

Alicia Ault is a Saint 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.