After Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overhauled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) vaccine advisory panel over the summer, replacing 17 of its prior members with seven of his own selections, he's adding to the lineup with five new appointees.
New to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Catherine M. Stein, Ph.D.; Evelyn Griffin, M.D.; Hilary Blackburn; Kirk Milhoan, M.D., Ph.D.; and Raymond Pollak, M.D., according to a notice sent out by the HHS Monday afternoon.
The names of the new ACIP members had all been reported two weeks ago, first by Jeremy Faust, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in his Substack blog “Inside Medicine.”
Notably, the earlier reporting featured two other potential ACIP members—New Orleans emergency room specialist Joseph Fraiman, M.D., and pediatric neurologist John Gaitanis, M.D.—who aren't included in HHS' announcement.
After Faust revealed the list of seven potential ACIP members, news outlets such as Politico took an opportunity to dive into the appointees' history. The publication noted that Milhoan is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance, which has been fighting to restrict the use of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 in pregnant women and children.
Also among the new members, Stein, an epidemiologist and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, in 2022 called for an end to university vaccine mandates. Earlier in the pandemic, she was labeled a "COVID-19 truther" by a local publication for her stance that the government and media were overplaying the seriousness of the threat.
Others in the Trump administration made similar remarks during that time span, notably FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., who in 2023 argued that vaccine mandates "ignored natural immunity."
The ACIP reviews in-depth data presentations on new and existing vaccines and votes on usage recommendations for the CDC director to consider. However, amid the leadership turmoil at the CDC and the perceived meddling in vaccine policy by long-time anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr., some states are casting doubt on the new setup and are taking vaccine policy into their own hands.
During the revamped panel's first session in June, members voted to ban the vaccine preservative thimerosal in the U.S. Thimerosal has been used to preserve vaccines for decades, but, last year, it was a component in fewer than 5% of flu shots used in the U.S.
At this week's ACIP meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, the group will discuss recommendations around vaccines for COVID-19, hepatitis B and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). This week’s forum will mark the second gathering of the panel since RFK Jr. ousted the prior sitting members and the first for the five new appointees announced Monday.
The ACIP panel is scheduled to spend much of Thursday discussing safety data and recommendations for hepatitis B vaccinations at birth before voting on that issue, plus guidance around MMR vaccines, according to a draft meeting agenda (PDF) on the CDC’s website.
RFK Jr.-appointed ACIP chair Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., questioned the widespread practice of inoculating newborn children against hepatitis B in the hospital at the previous meeting of the revamped ACIP in late June.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Sept. 19, the panel will focus solely on COVID-19 vaccines before voting on recommendations for the shots, homing in on updated safety and efficacy data as well as current epidemiology trends.