Vaccine advisers??????

Cassidy criticizes RFK Jr.'s vaccine advisers

The Louisiana Republican said advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should not meet this week because they lacked appropriate experience.

Kelly Hooper

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday to delay the scheduled meeting of the agency’s top vaccine advisers amid Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the panel.

Cassidy, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the scheduled Wednesday meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices should not proceed because new advisers selected by Kennedy lacked relevant experience.

Cassidy, who was the deciding vote on Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary at the committee level, confronted him during a confirmation hearing earlier this year about Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines. Kennedy previously ran an organization that questions vaccine safety.

Cassidy later said he only agreed to vote for Kennedy after he promised not to upend the nation’s system for evaluating vaccines.

Kennedy fired all 17 members of the vaccine advisory panel two weeks ago and replaced them with eight new members, some of whom have histories of vaccine skepticism. Cassidy said that “many” of the new members Kennedy appointed to the panel “do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology.”

The advisory panel’s 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,” Cassidy added in a post on the social platform X. “Otherwise, ACIP’s recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this Administration’s efforts.”

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Agency spokesperson Andrew Nixon previously told POLITICO that Kennedy’s overhaul of ACIP was “long overdue,” and the “new members bring fresh, independent scientific judgment — and most importantly, they are not beholden to industry.”