RFK Jr. fires all members of a prominent vaccine advisory committee — including a Colorado doctor ...Middle East

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official and a vaccine critic, on Monday fired all members of a prominent federal advisory committee on vaccines — including a doctor from Colorado.

Dr. Edwin Asturias was among the 17 members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices who were dismissed. Asturias, an infectious disease and global health expert, serves as a professor at both the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Kennedy announced the move in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, citing alleged conflicts of interest among members and writing that “a clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

The committee, known as the ACIP, reviews data on the safety and efficacy of vaccines and makes recommendations on when they should be used and who should receive them. It is up to the CDC director to decide whether to adopt the recommendations, but the agency has historically gone along.

“A pro-industry orthodoxy”

The committee is currently reviewing vaccines for a wide variety of diseases — from mpox to Lyme disease to flu to RSV to chikungunya — but its most high-profile work recently has been in making recommendations for the use of the COVID-19 vaccines. A thumbs-up from the ACIP was typically among the last steps taken before COVID shots started going into arms across the country.

During his confirmation process, Kennedy committed to keeping the ACIP in place. But he has long been critical of what he says are committee members beholden to the pharmaceutical industry.

“The problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal piece. “Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it. The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy.”

Kennedy said it was necessary to fire committee members now and replace them with new members who “won’t directly work for the vaccine industry.”

“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” he wrote.

Colorado anticipated the upheaval

ACIP members are appointed by the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and serve as volunteers.

While best known for its role in the vaccine-approval process, the committee’s work also plays an important role in selecting vaccines covered through the Vaccines for Children program, which provides vaccines to kids whose parents can’t afford them. ACIP recommendations are also used by states across the country when setting school immunization guidelines.

Because of this influence, health leaders concerned about Kennedy’s appointment have long feared that he may try to dismantle the committee and replace its members with vaccine skeptics.

Anticipating this possibility, Colorado lawmakers this year changed how Colorado sets its school vaccination requirements to de-emphasize the importance of ACIP recommendations. Now, under a bill Gov. Jared Polis signed in April, Colorado’s Board of Health will set immunization requirements after taking into consideration ACIP recommendations, as well as those of several independent medical groups. Previously, Colorado law said the state’s requirements should be set “based on” ACIP recommendations.

Research in Guatemala

Asturias began serving on the ACIP last summer after being appointed to the position during the Biden administration. Much of his work focuses on health in Guatemala, where he was born, and has undertaken numerous health care initiatives. He served as the nation’s COVID czar.

Through a CU spokesperson, Asturias declined to comment Monday.

ACIP members must file confidential financial disclosures and agree to forego participating in certain vaccine-related activities during their tenure. The committee also has other conflict-of-interest safeguards in place.

Kennedy called CDC enforcement of conflict-of-interest rules lax, and alleged in the Wall Street Journal that “most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines.”

During meetings last year and earlier this year, Asturias declared no conflicts of interest. His current CU research profile lists only studies funded by the federal government.

A review of previous disclosures in the federal government’s Open Payments system show that he has received money in the past from drugmakers.

Throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s, Asturias received a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year for what appear to be consultation and speaking fees. He has received much more, nearly $4 million, in research support to study RSV, pneumonia and other diseases in Guatemala and the U.S., including more than $3 million from drugmaker Pfizer. 

The studies typically focused on assessing the efficacy of a given test or vaccine — one was titled “Determination of the utility of Pfizer’s pneumococcal urine antigen test in children 5 years of age or younger with community acquired pneumonia,” for instance.

“We adhered to our process”

Asturias is not the only Colorado doctor to sit on the ACIP. During the height of the COVID pandemic, Denver pediatrician Dr. Matthew Daley served as a member.

In an interview with The Sun after his term ended last summer, Daley praised the integrity of ACIP members and the work of the CDC staff who supported them.

“The ACIP was allowed to independently follow its process for decision-making,” he said. “We were aware of these different power centers, but I was never getting late-night calls from any of those groups saying, ‘This is what we need you to do,’ or, ‘This is the decision we need you to make.’

“We adhered to our process, the process served us well, and we had independence to make vaccine policy decision-making.”

After Kennedy’s announcement of the firings on Monday, numerous health leaders expressed concern.

Dr. Bruce A. Scott, president of the American Medical Association, said the committee is a trusted source of information and said the firings, along with declining vaccination rates, will help drive an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” Scott said in a statement.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Kennedy’s mass ouster “a coup.”

“It’s not how democracies work,” he said. “It’s not good for the health of the nation.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — a doctor who had raised concerns about Kennedy’s nomination before ultimately voting to confirm him based on assurances that Kennedy would not dismantle the nation’s vaccine policy — said he spoke to Kennedy on Monday after the firings were announced.

“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” Cassidy said in a social media post. “I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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