Commentary: States must protect vaccine access in face of federal chaos |
Credit: Getty Images.
When public health works, it’s often invisible. For decades, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices quietly shaped vaccine recommendations, helping ensure insurance coverage, school requirements and equitable access through programs like Vaccines for Children, which provides free vaccinations for over half of U.S. children.
That stability ended this summer when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed every advisory committee member and stacked the panel with appointees more aligned with his vaccine skepticism than medical expertise.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
At their first meeting in June, the panel largely ignored threats like measles, influenza and polio, fixating instead on long-debunked claims about the preservative thimerosal — citing nonexistent studies. Removed from most vaccines 20 years ago, thimerosal is proven safe and used for shipment and storage.
The September advisory committee meeting confirmed how politicized the process has become.
During two days of confusion and abrupt reversals, the panel abandoned universal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, leaving it to “