from the tiny-little-coffins dept
Well, RFK Jr.’s reconstructed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), just concluded its first day of meetings in Atlanta. This was over the objection of GOP Senator Bill Cassidy, who confirmed RFK Jr. to his appointment but called for a delay to ACIP’s meeting after Kennedy terminated all 17 panel members weeks ago and replaced them with 8 hand-picked members that have been described as unqualified for the role, as anti-vaxxers, or both. ACIP is really important, as the group’s guidance has typically been adopted by doctors when it comes to immunization schedules for Americans and by policy makers when it comes to standards for what health insurance providers must cover.
Most everyone expected ACIP’s meeting to be filled with vaccine skepticism, misinformation, and a departure from the scientific approach the panel has previously taken. Unfortunately, it’s so, so much worse.
Let’s start with the simple fact that only 7 members of the panel met, because one of them withdrew from the position over conflicts of interest, the very thing RFK Jr. said was the reason for disbanding the previous 17 member ACIP.
A member of the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s newly overhauled federal vaccine advisory panel withdrew after a conflict of interest review, a spokesperson has told the Guardian. Dr Michael Ross, who was involved in multiple private healthcare companies, withdrew after review of his financial holdings.
“Yesterday, Dr Michael Ross decided to withdraw from serving on ACIP during the financial holdings review,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said. “The sacrifice to serve on ACIP varies from member to member, and we appreciate Dr Ross’s willingness to go through this rigorous process.”
What was the conflict of interest, you ask? Well, that should be easy enough to answer. See, Trump and Kennedy put together a whole webpage on the CDC.gov site with the sole purpose of making public any declared conflicts of interests by ACIP members made since the year of our lord 2,000. In the overview section of the page, it is made clear the webpage was created to “improve transparency about member conflicts of interest.”
None of Kennedy’s hand-picked ACIP members, including that of Dr. Ross, appear anywhere on that page. Transparency for thee, it seems, but not for he (Kennedy).
But if you thought such a black mark on the first day of meetings for ACIP would have dampened their anti-medicine spirit, you would be wrong. Everyone expected this blighted-version of ACIP to attack specific vaccines that were slated for discussion, namely the next round of flu vaccines due to the use of thimerosal to preserve multi-dose vials of the adult version of the shots, as well as RSV vaccines for children. And, while those attacks certainly did come from some panel members, ACIP thankfully ultimately voted to approve both vaccines for adults and children, with the caveat being that only single-dose shots should be given to children, which would be free of thimerosal.
But those specifics were overshadowed by the announcement that ACIP was going to globally review for assessment all vaccination schedules for both children and adults.
A federal vaccine panel entirely hand-selected by health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gathered for its first meeting Wednesday—and immediately announced that it would re-evaluate the entire childhood vaccination schedule, as well as the one for adults.
“In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it is important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,” Kulldorff said. “This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients, and the relative timing of different vaccines.”
This has already been studied. Extensively. As Ars notes, it’s all baked into the testing process for vaccines. During trials or testing, the vaccines are given along with the cumulative other vaccines that Kulldorff is talking about. Real world, real people stuff.
Not to mention all the other quackery that went on.
During the full-day meeting, the seven new members listened to CDC experts review data on COVID-19 vaccines and RSV vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. In the discussions, ACIP member Retsef Levi—who is an expert in operations management—made a puzzling critique that the CDC’s method for evaluating COVID-19 vaccine efficacy analysis didn’t account for “alternative” explanations like “the vaccine is actually making you more vulnerable for multiple viruses.”
Meanwhile, ACIP member Robert Malone—who has claimed to have invented mRNA vaccines and is proud to be called an “anti-vaxxer”—spread false misinformation that certain lots of COVID-19 vaccines were dangerous. ACIP member Vicky Pebsworth—a nurse who is on the board of an anti-vaccine organization—said she was “very concerned” that the CDC’s safety monitoring systems were not capturing all of the adverse events from vaccines and said the committee should have access to “data that we probably wouldn’t ordinarily have.” A CDC subject matter expert noted that there are published studies showing that the CDC’s safety monitoring systems capture a large majority of adverse events.
This is going to go precisely as you expect, for the most part, and exactly as Kennedy has willed it. That was the whole point of his hostile takeover of ACIP and his inputting a group of people ideologically aligned with his agenda. And it’s going to result in less immunization of the public, especially in children.
And that will lead, I’m sorry to say, to the filling of tiny little coffins.
Filed Under: acip, cdc, conflicts of interest, health and human services, martin kulldorff, michael ross, retsef levi, rfk jr., robert malone, vaccines, vicky pebsworth
