AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups

By MIKE STOBBE Associated Press NEW YORK AP U S healthcare bureaucrats have recounted more than a half-dozen of the nation s top health organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations The executive explained the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices The organizations include the American Physiological Association the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America I m concerned and distressed disclosed Dr William Schaffner a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups Related Articles Veteran federal judge T S Ellis III who presided over trial of Trump aide Paul Manafort has died Senate delays August recess for now as Trump presses for more confirmations Trump removes official overseeing jobs information after dismal employment analysis Trump orders nuclear submarines repositioned after provocative statements from Russia Democrats launching summer blitz to press Republicans on Trump spending plan He announced the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance as patients may hear the ruling body say one thing and hear their doctors say another One email commented the organizations are special interest groups and therefore are expected to have a bias based on their constituency and or population that they represent A federal healthcare official on Friday certified the action which was first shared by Bloomberg The decision was the latest advancement in what has become a saga involving the ACIP The committee created in makes recommendations to the Centers for Disorder Control and Prevention on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used CDC directors have traditionally almost invariably approved those recommendations which are widely heeded by doctors and greenlight insurance coverage for shots U S Soundness Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U S authorities s top vitality official and in June abruptly fired the entire ACIP after accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics The workgroups typically include not only committee members but also a number of experts from health and scientific organizations At workgroup meetings members evaluate material from vaccine manufacturers and the CDC and formulate vaccination recommendation proposals to be presented to the full committee The structure was created for several reasons Schaffner declared The professional groups provide input about what might and might not be workable for doctors to implement And it helped build respect and trust in ACIP recommendations having the buy-in of respected therapeutic organizations he reported Workgroup members are vetted for conflicts of interest to make sure than no one who had say made money from working on a hepatitis vaccine was placed on the hepatitis committee Schaffner noted Also disinvited from the groups were the American Academy of Family Physicians the American College of Physicians the American Geriatrics Society the American Osteopathic Association the National Physiological Association and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases In a joint announcement Friday the AMA and several of the other organizations mentioned To remove our deep healthcare expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible dangerous to our nation s wellness and will further undermine residents and clinician trust in vaccines They urged the administration to reconsider the move so we can continue to feel confident in its vaccine recommendations for our patients Selected of the professional organizations have criticized Kennedy s changes to the ACIP and three of the disinvited groups last month joined a lawsuit against the cabinet over Kennedy s decision to stop recommending COVID- vaccines for majority children and pregnant women In a social media post Friday one of the Kennedy-appointed ACIP members Retsef Levi wrote that the working groups will engage experts from even broader set of disciplines Levi a business management professor also wrote that working group membership will be based on merit expertise not membership in organizations proven to have conflicts of interest and radical narrow view of population wellbeing HHS agents have not reported which people are going to be added to the ACIP workgroups The Associated Press Medical and Science Department receives promotion from the Howard Hughes Diagnostic Institute s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content