ICYMI: Senator Murray, Former ACIP Member from WA State Raise Alarm Over Purge of Entire CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee
Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray, a senior member and former chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released the following statement regarding the upcoming meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which is scheduled to begin tomorrow. The meeting would be the first since Secretary Kennedy fired every single member of the 17-member board, and announced his own slate of eight members just two weeks ago, many of whom have aligned themselves with dangerous anti-vaccine ideologies or outright conspiracy theorists and the majority of whom are not vaccine experts.
“We need qualified vaccine experts evaluating the RSV and influenza shots families are counting on to protect them this fall—not the unvetted slate of eight members handpicked by RFK Jr. that includes people with long records of promoting anti-science conspiracies. The only way the upcoming ACIP meeting should proceed tomorrow is with the original board of vetted, qualified individuals that Secretary Kennedy chose to abruptly fire without any semblance of a legitimate reason or appropriate process. Short of that, ACIP must postpone this meeting until the board once again has a full slate of qualified members who have been fully and appropriately vetted.
“It is perilous to move ahead with this meeting with a bench of largely unqualified members with anti-vaccine backgrounds who seem all but certain to set back public health and confidence in ACIP’s important work to protect Americans from deadly illnesses.”
Earlier this month, Senator Murray held a press call with Washington state-based Dr. Helen Chu, one of the 17 ACIP members abruptly fired by Secretary Kennedy, to raise the alarm about how this move threatened public health and vaccine confidence.
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