WILLIAM KRISTOL, ANDREW EGGER, AND
, The Bulwark; RFK Jr. Is as Bad as We All Imagined: If it walks like a quack, talks like a quack, and quacks like a quack."In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy launched his latest offensive against America’s vaccines, announcing he had fired all seventeen members of the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-vax activist, said in an accompanying statement that the move had been necessary to “reestablish public confidence in vaccine science” and to rid the committee of “any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.” He said he would appoint replacements, presumably before the ACIP’s next meeting, which is scheduled to begin in two weeks.
The ACIP’s influence on federal health policy is enormous. As the CDC’s institutional brain trust for best-in-class vaccine science, it issues guidance that shapes federal policy for recommended vaccine schedules, including which vaccines should be administered to children. (Notwithstanding Kennedy’s odd assertion that the committee had “never recommended against a vaccine,” the ACIP does not authorize new vaccines for public use, a responsibility that belongs to the Food and Drug Administration.)
How important is the ACIP? Important enough that Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican and a doctor, made it his line in the sand for supporting Kennedy’s nomination as secretary of health and human services—a nomination he could have derailed. In announcing his decision to vote yes on Kennedy, Cassidy said the nominee had committed to him that he would maintain the ACIP “without changes.”
In response to yesterday’s news, Cassidy blandly noted “the fear that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion” and lamely promised to “continue to talk with [Kennedy] to ensure this is not the case.”
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