The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday published a request for nominations to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
“Nominees will be selected to represent a balanced range of scientific, clinical, and public health expertise relevant to the Committee’s mission, including person(s) knowledgeable about consumer perspectives and/or social and community aspects of immunization programs,” HHS said in the notice.
ACIP makes recommendations on vaccine policy to the CDC, which help determine which shots are covered through private and government health insurance programs.
Last year, Kennedy removed all the previous ACIP members and restaffed the panel with people critical of vaccines, triggering lawsuits and states splitting off their immunization schedules from that of the federal government.
A federal judge subsequently blocked all the ACIP's recommendations and Kennedy's appointment of new members, finding that they appeared to "lack any expertise or professional qualifications related to vaccines or immunization as required by ACIP’s Charter.”
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in March ruled Kennedy picked “distinctly unqualified” individuals instead of experts on vaccines and immunization and disregarded the scientific process that historically underpinned the committee’s work.
Kennedy was free to try to appoint new members subject to the same legal standard, but until now the agency has not tried.
Richard Hughes IV, the attorney representing the American Academy of Pediatrics in the lawsuit against HHS, wrote in an analysis Thursday that HHS's request “reads as a sign that Kennedy intends to appoint a committee ready and willing to continue where his previous ACIP was forced, by court order, to stop in March 2026.”
Where the agency previously asked for nominees with “expertise” in the fields of immunization practices and public health, Hughes said Thursday’s notice downplays individual expertise and emphasizes non-scientific perspectives.
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