Making America Healthier?
The administration didnāt allow CDC to open the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) agenda for public comments and has postponed the vaccine policy meeting scheduled for next week.
It's certain there will be misleading, inaccurate information claiming ACIP members have conflicts of interest. Hereās the plain truth:Ā ACIP, made up of pediatricians, public health specialists, and parents, is the gold standard for open, transparent recommendations on vaccine safety and effectiveness. There are strict policies to prevent conflicts of interest. If there are allegations of impropriety, RFK Jr. should make these accusations openly and they should be addressedĀ openly.
RFK Jr. may try to replace ACIP members with decades of in-depth knowledge of vaccines with those he believes āunderstandā vaccines.Ā Itās healthy to ask questions about vaccines ā itās crucial to know if they are safe and effective. But RFK Jr. has repeatedly disregarded the facts, misrepresented studies, and endorsed fringe beliefs on vaccines.
For the sake of the doctors, nurses, pharmacistsāand all of usāI hope the same committee meets soon. Here's what's on the agenda. The topics are complex and thereās no replacement for the fact-based approach of current ACIP members and CDC staff who support the committee.
- How to safely protect infants from deadly meningococcal infections and what fact-based safety information should be shared with parents about risks of the vaccines
- Which travelers should receive a new vaccine against Chikungunya, a viral infection that causes excruciating jointĀ painsĀ
- Which flu vaccines should be recommended and how should the FluMist vaccine be given
- Will flu and meningococcal vaccines be covered by the Vaccines for Children program so people donāt have to pay for them
- How should antibodies be used to keep babies from dying from the RSV virus, who should receive the new RSV vaccine and what are the known facts about benefits and risks? (Every year, RSV kills at least 100 children and 6,000 older adults and causes more than 100,000 hospitalizations.)
- Can fewer doses of the HPV vaccine be given with the same effectiveness preventing cancer?
- How and when should the mpox vaccine be given, what are the safety concerns, and how effective is it?
- What more do we need to know about vaccines to prevent pneumonia, CMV, and Lyme disease? (CMV causes thousands of infants a year in the US to have hearing loss and cognitiveĀ problems.)
- What are the facts about Covid-19 vaccines, who is getting sick and hospitalized from Covid-19, and what should be the approach to making an open, transparent recommendation about who should get the vaccine in the coming year?
We NEED the ACIP to discuss these issues. As with all ACIP meetings, all discussion and documents are open to the public. The sooner the meeting gets rescheduled, with the same ACIP membership, the better for America's health, safety, and efficiency.
The administration didnāt allow CDC to open the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) agenda for public comments and has postponed the vaccine policy meeting scheduled for next week.
It's certain there will be misleading, inaccurate information claiming ACIP members have conflicts of interest. Hereās the plain truth:Ā ACIP, made up of pediatricians, public health specialists, and parents, is the gold standard for open, transparent recommendations on vaccine safety and effectiveness. There are strict policies to prevent conflicts of interest. If there are allegations of impropriety, RFK Jr. should make these accusations openly and they should be addressedĀ openly.
RFK Jr. may try to replace ACIP members with decades of in-depth knowledge of vaccines with those he believes āunderstandā vaccines.Ā Itās healthy to ask questions about vaccines ā itās crucial to know if they are safe and effective. But RFK Jr. has repeatedly disregarded the facts, misrepresented studies, and endorsed fringe beliefs on vaccines.
For the sake of the doctors, nurses, pharmacistsāand all of usāI hope the same committee meets soon. Here's what's on the agenda. The topics are complex and thereās no replacement for the fact-based approach of current ACIP members and CDC staff who support the committee.
- How to safely protect infants from deadly meningococcal infections and what fact-based safety information should be shared with parents about risks of the vaccines
- Which travelers should receive a new vaccine against Chikungunya, a viral infection that causes excruciating jointĀ painsĀ
- Which flu vaccines should be recommended and how should the FluMist vaccine be given
- Will flu and meningococcal vaccines be covered by the Vaccines for Children program so people donāt have to pay for them
- How should antibodies be used to keep babies from dying from the RSV virus, who should receive the new RSV vaccine and what are the known facts about benefits and risks? (Every year, RSV kills at least 100 children and 6,000 older adults and causes more than 100,000 hospitalizations.)
- Can fewer doses of the HPV vaccine be given with the same effectiveness preventing cancer?
- How and when should the mpox vaccine be given, what are the safety concerns, and how effective is it?
- What more do we need to know about vaccines to prevent pneumonia, CMV, and Lyme disease? (CMV causes thousands of infants a year in the US to have hearing loss and cognitiveĀ problems.)
- What are the facts about Covid-19 vaccines, who is getting sick and hospitalized from Covid-19, and what should be the approach to making an open, transparent recommendation about who should get the vaccine in the coming year?
We NEED the ACIP to discuss these issues. As with all ACIP meetings, all discussion and documents are open to the public. The sooner the meeting gets rescheduled, with the same ACIP membership, the better for America's health, safety, and efficiency.