Medical groups ‘alarmed’ that they’re barred from federal vaccine policy guidance

Healthcare organizations are speaking out after they have been barred from working with a federal panel charged with making recommendations on vaccine policy.

The American Medical Association and several other groups have been told they won’t be working with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on vaccine recommendations.

The development comes several weeks after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired 17 members of the committee, a move which outraged many healthcare leaders. Critics also pointed out that Kennedy replaced the panel’s members with some who reflected his long-running skepticism and criticism of vaccines.

The AMA, American Academy of Family Physicians, and Infectious Diseases Society of America are among several groups prohibited from working with the committee and reviewing data on vaccine recommendations.

The groups issued a joint statement Friday condemning the decision to bar the organizations from working with the federal panel on vaccine policy. They urged President Trump’s administration to reconsider excluding the groups from working with the federal panel.

“We are deeply disappointed and alarmed that our organizations are being characterized as ‘biased’ and therefore barred from reviewing scientific data and informing the development of vaccine recommendations that have long helped ensure our nation’s vaccine program is safe, effective, and free from bias,” the groups said.

“For decades, liaisons from our organizations have reviewed published and unpublished data and literature related to vaccine efficacy, effectiveness, and safety and provided unbiased input for ACIP’s consideration,” the groups said. “To remove our deep medical expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible, dangerous to our nation’s health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccines.”

The American Academy of Family Physicians says it signed onto the AMA statement in opposition to the removal of medical society experts from the evidence review process. Family physician liaisons to the vaccine panel have not received formal notice of exclusion, the AAFP says.

Bloomberg News first reported that the AMA and other groups would be prohibited from working with the federal panel. The Associated Press reported Friday that it had confirmed the news with a federal official, and cited an email expressing a desire to move away from groups with bias on their own constituents.

The statement of protest Friday was issued by the American Academy of Family Physicians

American Academy of Pediatrics; American College of Physicians; American Geriatrics Society; American Medical Association; American Osteopathic Association; Infectious Diseases Society of America; and the National Medical Association.

Healthcare organizations have grown increasingly dismayed by changes to federal health policy since Kennedy took over the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

• Read more: Public health has taken ‘a huge black eye’ with federal cuts

Kennedy said he ousted the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to restore public confidence in the panel and reduce conflicts of interests.

This week, the panel members spoke out against their ouster and the implications for public health. In an opinion piece for the New England Journal of Medicine published Wednesday, the former members suggested the need for a credible and possibly independent panel to advise on vaccine policy.

"The abrupt dismantling of the rigorously vetted process and the replacement of the Committee with an inexperienced and biased panel has engendered fundamental distrust in the Committee's vital work," they wrote. "The nation now faces a scenario in which the rigor and discipline of these vaccine recommendation processes are rapidly eroding."

Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told Chief Healthcare Executive in an interview last month that he’s gravely concerned that Kennedy’s actions are undermining public confidence in vaccines, which is already lower than it should be. Benjamin pointed to Kennedy’s firing of all the members of the vaccine advisory panel as a disturbing sign.

“He got rid of a group of well-established experts with a lot of experience understanding vaccines, and he's recreated the panel with the degree of vaccine skeptics that have nowhere near the both academic or science experience of the previous panel,” Benjamin said last month.

The AMA and other health groups have also spoken out in recent days after reports that Kennedy is considering replacing all the members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

“We urge you to retain the previously appointed members of the USPSTF and commit to the long-standing process of regular meetings to ensure their important work can continue without interruption,” the AMA said this week.

• Read more: CDC faces criticism for new research questioning link of vaccines and autism