The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a webpage detailing the conflicts of interest of members of a vaccine advisory committee, increasing the pressure on a group the new health secretary has already placed under tight scrutiny.
The move comes after the committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, has been singled out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for reform — despite his previous assurances that he would not do exactly that.
The page states that its goal is to “improve transparency about member conflicts of interest” and lists previous disclosures made by committee members in the last 25 years. Conflicts of interest were already publicly available in committee meeting notes but were not easily searchable. The new database makes disclosures searchable by committee member name.
During his confirmation battle, Kennedy gained the vote of a reluctant Sen. Bill Cassidy by promising that he would not make changes to ACIP. But days after he was confirmed, Kennedy told Fox News that panels of outside experts were hindering his goal to Make America Healthy Again.
“In the past, these people — almost all of them — have severe, severe conflicts of interest, and that’s not good for our country,” he said. Kennedy is reportedly considering replacing ACIP members who he sees as being too conflicted.
Cassidy declined to comment on the new site through a spokesperson.
ACIP is made up of medical and public health experts who make recommendations to the CDC director on how to use vaccines to best control diseases. These recommendations are used by states to determine which vaccinations to require for children attending school, as well as by Medicare and Medicaid in determining coverage.
Former CDC deputy director Anne Schuchat said she supported the new disclosure website if the increased transparency reassures those who are skeptical about ACIP members. But she added that the committee has made a continuous effort to improve transparency since its establishment in 1964. Shuchat also noted that the website only lists disclosures of conflict — not the many instances where committee members did not have any conflicts to disclose.
The committee was supposed to hold a meeting in February, but it was postponed to “accommodate public comment,” despite Kennedy moving to eliminate public comment on HHS decisions. A new date for the meeting has not yet been set. The meeting was supposed to include discussions on the flu, RSV, Mpox, and COVID-19 vaccines, among others.
The ACIP plays an important role in maintaining the health of the nation, said Schuchat.
“I would hate to see it disbanded,” said Schuchat. “I think that would be very challenging for clinicians and eventually for members of the public.”
Former CDC director Tom Frieden said in a post on X that the disclosures may look like a scandal, but are really evidence that the ACIP is committed to following its own rules.
“The people who evaluate the safety and effectiveness of vaccines are parents, pediatricians, scientists, and public health professionals,” wrote Frieden. “They’re not doing it for profit.”
In a post on X, Kennedy thanked the CDC for its “commitment to radical transparency.”
—
Margaret Manto is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.