Scientists and analysts express concern that the newly appointed ACIP members—which include known anti-vaxxers—could relitigate recommendations that have already been made. Many are imploring Sen. Bill Cassidy to step up.
On June 25, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly minted CDC vaccine advisors will convene for their first meeting, with COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza vaccines all on the agenda that dropped Thursday morning.
Recommendation votes, according to the federal register notice, are scheduled for COVID-19, human papillomavirus (HPV), influenza, meningococcal and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.
For COVID-19, the ACIP was expected to vote on moving toward a risk-based strategy, but Kennedy jumped the gun, issuing new COVID guidelines in advance of the committee’s vote. As for the other immunizations on the list, the ACIP has already issued their advice.
“Those recommendations have already been made,” Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told BioSpace. “So we’re reconsidering these vaccines now? Is that what we’re doing? And the answer is yes. That’s what we’re doing.”
On Wednesday, when Kennedy announced on X eight new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—to replace the 17 previous members he axed on Monday—he stated that the new roster would “review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule.”
Of the eight new ACIP members—it is as yet unclear if more will be named—a few are particularly concerning to Offit, as well as to analysts.
Offit highlighted Robert Malone, a biochemist and early mRNA vaccine researcher, “who has testified in front of Congress that the mRNA vaccines cause cancer and heart disease and autoimmune disease, even though it doesn’t.”
BMO Capital Markets, in a Wednesday evening note to investors, likewise highlighted Malone as a “notable vaccine skeptic.” The analysts also identified Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist “who was against COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates” and Vicky Pebsworth, the director of Research & Patient Safety at the National Vaccine Information Center, “a nonprofit group widely criticized for spreading vaccine misinformation.” Offit concurred, calling the National Vaccine Information Center a “virulent anti-vaccine group.”
Meanwhile, MIT professor Retsef Levi published what Offit called a “horribly flawed paper” claiming that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines caused heart attacks, which has been “roundly criticized for its methodological problems.”
The situation at the CDC has been acrimonious throughout the past weeks. Following Kennedy’s unilateral decision to change the CDC’s guidance on COVID vaccination, ACIP co-lead Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos resigned, writing in an email to colleagues that her decision was based on the belief that she is “no longer able to help the most vulnerable members” of the U.S. population.
Then, on Tuesday, following Kennedy’s “clean sweep” of the ACIP on Monday and the layoffs of thousands of CDC employees since the Secretary’s confirmation in February, protests broke out at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
Throughout all of this, Offit and others are wondering why Sen. Bill Cassidy isn’t speaking out. The Republication senior senator from Louisiana is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and had heated discussions with Kennedy during his confirmation hearings, during which the secretary promised Cassidy to work within the bounds of existing vaccine regulatory frameworks.
“Where is Senator Cassidy, for goodness sake?” asked Offit. “I mean, he’s been played for the fool ever since the beginning.” Kennedy assured Cassidy that he would not name any anti-vaxxers to the ACIP, “and then he has three,” Offit said. It’s exactly what analysts feared when President Donald Trump first named Kennedy as his pick for health secretary.
Offit spoke to Cassidy the night before his confirmation vote, Offit told BioSpace. “He doesn’t like Kennedy, he doesn’t. He fears Kennedy. He does. But I guess he fears being primaried more.”
Offit isn’t alone in calling on Sen. Cassidy to step up. Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf has been on the hunt for the senator since Monday, writing in various LinkedIn posts, “Where is Sen Cassidy?” and “For the life of me I can’t understand why Senators Cassidy, [Maine Senator Susan] Collins et al are so meek when a person with such a glaring conflict of interest (well documented, pocketing large amounts of $$) is directly intervening over experts and career scientists.”
Cassidy promised on X Monday that he would maintain an open dialogue with Kennedy to ensure the ACIP is not “filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.”
Offit, who is also a member of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, is less concerned about Kennedy’s potential meddling in this body. “I’m not sure that RFK Jr. cares as much about VRBPAC,” he said. Instead, he pointed to Project 2025, long thought to be a guiding document for the Trump administration. “If you look at the project 2025, under CDC, it says it wants to eliminate CDC as a recommending body.”
The ACIP meeting will be held June 25–27, with written comments from the public due by June 20.
