ATLANTA — Protesters gathered in front of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rally against the newly appointed vaccine advisory committee that met for the first time on Wednesday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had previously dismissed the entire panel of 17 people and replaced them with picks of his own, a total of 8 new members.
Protesters told Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers that they believe the new committee is dangerous for public health.
“It’s frustrating,” former CDC employee Aryn Backus said. “Many of these people are not vaccine experts… and that is really problematic to a lot of us who work in public health.”
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The CDC released a statement on Wednesday that said, in part:
“Secretary Kennedy has appointed some of the most highly qualified individuals to serve on the ACIP committee. The new members will ensure that evidence-based medicine, the gold standard of science, and common sense is used for all vaccine policy decisions.”
The new committee is supposed to be holding votes on RSV vaccines during their meeting.
But critics say the way Kennedy is going about this overhaul is making it more difficult for health insurance companies, and now organizations are fighting to protect vaccine integrity.
“It helps insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid, decide what they’re going to cover for people. It won’t be able for them to get it without paying out of pocket for it,” Backus said.
The committee will also be meeting on Thursday.
The committee is currently down to seven people after one of the eight new appointees stepped down before Wednesday’s meeting.
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