RFK Jr. reshapes CDC vaccine panel, drawing fire from WA Sen. Patty Murray

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel that makes recommendations on vaccines is scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday, just weeks after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, handpicking eight replacements.

“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy concluded. “ACIP’s new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas. The entire world once looked to American health regulators for guidance, inspiration, scientific impartiality, and unimpeachable integrity. Public trust has eroded. Only through radical transparency and gold standard science will we earn it back.”

But U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) has concerns.

“Secretary Kennedy has spread really blatant disinformation about vaccines and undermined the established science,” Murray told CDC Director nominee Dr. Susan Monarez at a hearing. “It’s not just the (ACIP) members that I’m concerned about. Secretary Kennedy is bringing anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists from his former organization into that crucial vaccine meeting.”

The CDC was created nearly 80 years ago to prevent the spread of malaria in the U.S. Its mission was later expanded, and it gradually became a global leader on infectious and chronic diseases and a go-to source of health information.

Monarez, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the CDC, is the first nominee for CDC director to require Senate confirmation.

If Monarez is confirmed, it would end a stretch of confusion at the Atlanta-based CDC, where, for months, it wasn’t clear who was running the agency. The acting director’s role was filled in part by Matthew Buzzelli, the CDC’s chief of staff, who is a lawyer and political appointee with no medical experience.

“Lyn Redwood, who’s from the Children’s Health Defense, is scheduled to give a presentation on thimerosal in vaccines to further RFK’s debunked claims that it causes autism,” Murray explained to Monarez, “and she cited a study that does not exist.”

Monarez told Murray she was unfamiliar with Redwood, but pointed out the ACIP is a public meeting and members of the public are allowed to provide information.

Murray reminded Monarez that government vaccine recommendations influence which shots are covered by insurance.

“When ACIP pulls its recommendation or refuses to recommend and evidence based vaccine a lot more kids and a lot more families will not get vaccinated. They will not be able to afford it. And that is the reality.” Murray insisted.

Monarez repeatedly said she had not been involved in decisions earlier this year to cut hundreds of staff and eliminate CDC programs, but that she would work to retain the agency’s core functions and transition key programs to other parts of the Health and Human Services department.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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