ATLANTA — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants his handpicked panel of vaccine advisers to restore declining public trust in vaccines.
What that looked like was on full display on Thursday and Friday: The 12-person committee, which includes several scientists and researchers who’ve questioned or spread misinformation about vaccines, raised doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness data presented by CDC experts, floated a variety of theoretical or unsupported concerns of their own, and revisited decades-old vaccine policy based on what they claimed were concerns from parents and patients, not a public health need or fresh data.
By the end of the two-day meeting, the group’s actions appeared to be modest, but they added to the moves that Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccines, and his subordinates have made to limit access to proven shots since taking office. And they underscored how the group, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, has moved away from the science-based framework for decision-making it has used for more than a decade to weigh the risks and benefits of vaccines.
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