Vaccination experts fired by US government issue warning

Vaccination experts fired by the US government issued a warning on Monday in an editorial in which they declared themselves “deeply concerned”.

Known for his anti-vaccine stance, US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. last week removed the 17 members of a key advisory committee, accusing them of financial conflicts of interest.

Two days later, Kennedy announced the appointment of eight new members, some of whom are considered anti-vaccine. The Democratic opposition and renowned health experts and officials harshly criticized the move.

The 17 former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advised the country's main health agency (CDC), published an editorial in the medical journal JAMA. "The abrupt resignation of all ACIP members, the appointment of eight new members just two days later, and the recent reduction in CDC staff dedicated to vaccines have seriously weakened the American vaccination program," they warned.

“These actions have deprived the program of the institutional knowledge and continuity that have been essential to its success for decades,” the former members continued, denouncing other “recent changes to COVID-19 vaccine policy” announced by Kennedy on social media because they appear to “ignore the standard review process.”

“As former members of Acip, we are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear justification, could reverse the advances that made American vaccine policy possible,” they concluded.