The loss of special government employee status for four members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices follows the resignation of ACIP co-lead Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who left in protest of a controversial change in COVID-19 recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women.
Four months ago, prior to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. winning his current job as Health and Human Services Secretary, analysts expressed concern that he could “restack” the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Now, it appears that could be happening. Sunday, STAT News reported that four members of the ACIP have had their status as special government employees terminated.
The reason for these terminations is unclear, according to STAT, which suggested that they could either be the result of “political machinations” or a bureaucratic error stemming from cuts to staff in the offices that handle the issuance of special government employee contracts.
“Everyone is hoping that this was inadvertent, but concerned it may have been deliberate,” one person associated with the ACIP, who requested not to be named for fear of reprisal, told the publication.
If the latter turns out to be true, it was foreshadowed by analysts at Truist Securities, who wrote in a February note that one way Kennedy could influence COVID-19 vaccines is through “restacking the ACIP panel,” which comprises health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the U.S. “Replacing panel members with those aligning with anti-vax rhetoric could be a way to redirect public health policies,” they wrote.
Sunday’s STAT report follows the resignation last week of ACIP co-lead Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, who stepped down after Kennedy announced late last month that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and healthy pregnant women in advance of an ACIP vote on the matter scheduled for later this month.
In an email to colleagues, reported by several media outlets, Panagiotakopoulos wrote that her decision to resign was based on the belief that she is “no longer able to help the most vulnerable members” of the U.S. population.
The announced changes to the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations—which have only partially been implemented by the CDC—and the potential ACIP shakeup are the latest in a string of developments that have the industry concerned about Kennedy’s potential for unilateral decisionmaking in the vaccine space.
Also notable is that all of these changes are occurring without a clear leader at the CDC—a fact that former CDC director Robert Redfield raised as a concern during an interview with NBC News last week. “I’ve been disappointed that we haven’t had an aggressive director since—February, March, April, May—fighting for the resources that CDC needs,” Redfield told the outlet.
While Kennedy has pulled together the rest of his HHS leadership team, including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Vinay Prasad, the top slot at the CDC has remained vacant since President Donald Trump withdrew his first nominee, Dave Weldon, in March. A hearing for Trump’s new nominee, the agency’s former acting director Susan Monarez, has yet to be scheduled because Monarez has not submitted the required paperwork, a spokesman for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) told NBC News.
