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The CDC has informed public health experts and physician organizations, whose views are considered in shaping the U.S. vaccine policy, that their services are no longer required for a key vaccine advisory panel, according to an email viewed by Bloomberg News.
As members of the workgroups of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the experts review data and help develop recommendation options for the ACIP panel, whose views are vital to determine public access to vaccines in the U.S.
Based on the ACIP recommendations, the insurers decide which shots should be covered free of charge for their members.
“It is important that the ACIP workgroup activities remain free of influence from any special interest groups, so ACIP workgroups will no longer include liaison organizations,” the email said, arguing that the experts act partially “based on their constituency and/or population that they represent.”
While the experts will be barred from taking part in ACIP’s work groups, there won’t be any restrictions for them to attend publicly held meetings.
The decision marks the latest policy change at the CDC after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 ACIP members only to pick eight new members a few days later ahead of a key meeting of the panel in June.
Some of the experts represented in the workgroups, namely the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, sued RFK Jr. last month over his decision to revise the COVID vaccine recommendation for healthy pregnant women and children.