The chairman of the Senate health committee, in his first significant break with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has called for a delay in this week’s meeting of a panel of vaccine advisers, saying the group Mr. Kennedy appointed lacks the experience and diversity of opinion necessary to ensure public faith in its recommendations.
The chairman, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, made his comments in a social media post on Monday night. Mr. Cassidy, a physician and a strong proponent of vaccines, voted reluctantly to confirm Mr. Kennedy after announcing that the secretary had agreed to consult with him on significant matters and not to disband the advisory committee. The senator has carefully parsed his words about Mr. Kennedy.
“Although the appointees to ACIP have scientific credentials, many do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology,” Mr. Cassidy wrote, using the acronym for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In particular,” Mr. Cassidy added, “some lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them.”
Mr. Kennedy, who has complained that committee members he fired were too close to the drug industry, defended the dismissals on Tuesday when he appeared before a House subcommittee to defend a budget blueprint for his department that called for major cuts. The health secretary called the old panel “a template for medical malpractice” during a fiery clash with Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey.
He then accused Mr. Pallone of being influenced by drug industry contributions to his campaigns, saying the lawmaker’s “enthusiasm” for the previous panel seemed to be “an outcome of those contributions.
After an outcry from Mr. Pallone’s fellow Democratic lawmakers, the subcommittee chairman forced Mr. Kennedy to retract his words.
The upcoming meeting of the advisory committee, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, is drawing scrutiny from vaccine experts because it includes a discussion of thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was removed from most childhood vaccines as a precautionary measure more than two decades ago amid suspicion from vaccine critics, including Mr. Kennedy, that it was linked to autism. No link has been found.
Thimerosal, however, is still used in a small percentage of flu vaccines. CNN reported on Monday that the advisory meeting was to include a presentation on thimerosal from Lyn Redwood, the president emerita of Children’s Health Defense, the group Mr. Kennedy founded and led until he stepped aside to run for president.
Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of the immunization advisory committee this month, saying they were too close to industry, and replaced them with eight new members, at least four of whom have in some way been critical of vaccination. A spokesman for Mr. Kennedy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When he supported Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation, Mr. Cassidy said in a Senate floor speech explaining his vote that Mr. Kennedy reassured him of his “commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination,” and promised that they would have an “unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship” and would meet or speak “multiple times a month.” Mr. Kennedy also committed to maintain the C.D.C. advisory panel “without changes,” Mr. Cassidy said.
The mass firing appeared to catch Mr. Cassidy off guard. After the announcement, he expressed his concerns on social media: “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”
The advisory committee wields enormous influence, carefully reviewing data about vaccines and making recommendations about who should get them and when. It ordinarily takes months to prepare for its meetings; the newly constituted panel has had only two weeks to do so.
A senior C.D.C. expert on vaccine policy who was scheduled to present evidence to the committee quit in frustration last week, warning that “a lot of Americans are going to die” if Mr. Kennedy’s moves were not reversed.
In calling for a delay, Mr. Cassidy wrote: “The meeting should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation — as required by law — including those with more direct relevant expertise. Otherwise, ACIP’s recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this Administration’s efforts.”
There was no indication that the health secretary would heed Mr. Cassidy’s urging. Mr. Kennedy said when he fired the panel that the move was necessary to restore trust in vaccines.
The agenda for the two-day advisory committee meeting includes discussion of vaccines against Covid-19; respiratory syncytial virus, or R.S.V.; influenza; anthrax; and chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus that is not often seen in the United States. Last month, Mr. Kennedy created an uproar when he announced on his own that Covid shots would be removed from the C.D.C. schedule of vaccines for children; the agency later said children could have the vaccines after consulting with a health professional.
The Vaccine Integrity Project, a new initiative at the University of Minnesota to counter vaccine misinformation, noted in a blog post on Monday that, despite a widening measles outbreak, the committee’s agenda did not include a discussion of the benefits of measles vaccination.
“Additionally,” the blog post said, “this will be the first meeting with presentations that C.D.C. subject matter experts did not vet. Their eyes haven’t touched the scheduled presentations on the flu vaccine and thimerosal, which Redwood is slated to give, or the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (M.M.R.V.) vaccine. These are clear signs that the true intent of the meeting is to sow distrust about the safety of vaccines.”
Sheryl Gay Stolberg covers health policy for The Times from Washington. A former congressional and White House correspondent, she focuses on the intersection of health policy and politics.
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