Vaccine panel is turning misinformation into policy

Inside one of those nondescript rooms last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered a glimpse of what's to come

- Lisa Jarvis, Tribune news Service

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s dismantling of Americans’ trust in — and ultimately, access to — vaccines isn’t happening with one sweeping policy that grabs the public's attention. It’s unfolding quickly and quietly, in bland conference rooms where handpicked appointees make decisions that will have far-reaching consequences for our health.

Inside one of those nondescript rooms last week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offered a glimpse of what's to come. The group, few of whom have any expertise in vaccines, infectious diseases or epidemiology, at times cast aside evidence-based science and sowed doubt in some of our most valuable public health tools. This panel of seven replaced the 17 ACIP members Kennedy fired last month in order to stack the committee with members who share his anti-vaccine agenda.

Their lack of expertise and, for some, even basic knowledge of epidemiology, were evident throughout the two-day meeting. Some were unfamiliar with the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides free shots to those eligible. (The program has provided some 71.5 billion doses to kids since 1994.) At least one member appeared to struggle to understand the distinction between a vaccine's efficacy and its effectiveness. It's a wonky, but important distinction referring to how well a vaccine works in a trial versus the real world. Some seemed not to take seriously the risk that infections like RSV and the flu can pose to even healthy children. One member suggested that the 250 children who died from the flu last season — a recent high — was a “modest” number.