Confusion abounds over future of US vaccine advisory committee

Does the US have a vaccine advisory committee? The answer became surprisingly murky on Thursday, as former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and health officials made contradictory statements following a federal judge essentially invalidating the committee and their recent decisions on Monday.

According to a former member of the committee who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive matters, ACIP will continue to exist without the 13 members who were stayed by Judge Brian Murphy on Monday – and officials plan to start the process over again with new members.

The judge found that the members had not gone through the necessary process to join the committee, and he put on hold their membership and all decisions the committee made in the past year. The judge also put on hold an unprecedented move in January by US health officials to make major changes to the routine childhood immunization schedule. That means all 17 vaccines are once again fully recommended, including the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.

But confusion about the future of the committee still abounds, even among its former members.

Robert Malone, the former co-chair of ACIP, posted on X on Thursday that the committee had been “disbanded”. The US government is planning to “recreate a new ACIP committee, as this will take less time than would be required to file and prosecute an appeal”, Malone added.

Yet a source familiar with officials’ thinking pushed back on these assertions, saying there has not been a final decision on how to proceed in light of the judge’s order. The 13 members handpicked by Robert F Kennedy Jr who were the focus of the lawsuit are no longer able to serve following the stay, but four others who were recently named are still members of the committee, which is mandated by law to exist.

“Unless officially announced by us, any assertions about what we are doing next is baseless speculation,” said Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

On Thursday night, Malone doubled down – at first.

“For some reason they are now trying to walk this back while throwing us under the bus,” Malone posted. In a now-deleted post, Malone said he heard the details he had posted on Thursday morning via an email and then a call from Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the committee.

Later, Malone backtracked on his statements. “I have now been told that this was a miscommunication, and in fact the decision about how to proceed has not been made, and dissolving and reforming remains one of options being considered,” he wrote.

An email from Milhoan, obtained by the Guardian, did alert members to a new development Thursday morning and requested phone calls with them. Malone got a few details from this conversation wrong, but one point was correct, according to the former member of the committee.

Jay Bhattacharya, the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Milhoan on Thursday morning that officials plan to select new members for the committee because an appeal process could be lengthy, Milhoan told the former members by phone. It’s not clear if officials plan to file an appeal on the judge’s stay; so far, there has been no appeal filed.

The tumult on Thursday highlighted the “chaos and confusion, starting from the top down”, that has characterized the committee’s tenure, the former member said.

“Hopefully the reconstitution will follow the law,” and the new members will be “competent scientists”, they added.

Bruce Mirken, communications co-chair for Defend Public Health, said “this chaos simply adds to the public’s declining trust in government health agencies”.

“A cynic might say they want Americans to believe no one and trust nothing, but the result is that people will continue to be confused and some will die needlessly from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines,” Mirken continued, before adding that Kennedy needs to be removed from office.

“Congress needs to impeach Kennedy now and put a stop to this grotesque circus,” he said.