RFK's handpicked CDC vaccine committee to vote on US policy Wednesday. Senator Cassidy calls for a delay.

Plus, the updated meeting agenda includes presentation on thimerosal from a known anti-vaxxer Kennedy ally.

Getty Images / David Buzzard-media-centre.ca

The CDC’s newly reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is set to meet tomorrow and Thursday. However, last night, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), a physician whose vote paved the way for Secretary Kennedy’s confirmation, called for the ACIP meeting to be delayed. Cassidy’s rationale, posted on Twitter/X included the lack of a CDC Director. His statement also highlighted deviations from the usual and legal requirements around ACIP, whose votes are legally binding for insurance providers. Here’s what he wrote:

This is a big deal, at least potentially. At a minimum, I take it as a sign that our advocacy and loud protests are working to some degree. (Some of my colleagues believe Cassidy’s post was pure lip service; I’m not sure what it ultimately means, but I know it’s better that he said something rather than nothing.) My response was short and sweet:

Backing up…Recall that earlier this month the entire seventeen-member voting roster of respected ACIP members was unceremoniously sacked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on baseless accusations around conflicts of interest, only to be replaced by eight newbies whose rap sheets include histories of having spread audacious lies about mRNA vaccines, not to mention profound conflicts of interest of their own, including having served as witnesses in legal cases against vaccine manufacturers.

Recall, also, that last week, we learned that ACIP will vote on national RSV and influenza vaccine policy. (What precisely will be voted on? Who knows.) We also learned that thimerosal (a hobby horse of anti-vaxxers with a penchant for blaming autism on anything located in the same ZIP code as vaccines) will not only be discussed but, even more troubling, also voted on. (What precisely will be voted on? Who knows.)

I must reiterate that it is simply extraordinary that we, the public, have only been told the topics of these votes, but we have not been told the language for these votes. This is completely out of step with the advisory committee’s normal practices, practices that are required to ensure adequate opportunity for public comment prior to the enacting of national policies that drive vaccine availability (#transparency).

How bad is all of this? Pretty bad. Dr. Fiona Havers, the CDC’s lead scientist on RSV and Covid-19 vaccine data, resigned in protest last week, saying she no longer had confidence that the data the agency analyzes will be used appropriately. Then, yesterday, CNN reported that a leading anti-vaxxer will give a presentation on thimerosal at the ACIP meeting. (The FDA still hosts a website on thimerosal’s safety, as of June 23.)

However, one piece of good news is that the resistance—that is, Team “Actual Science”—is showing signs of life. In addition to Senator Cassidy’s post—pro forma though it may turn out to be—other important groups are starting to speak out more forcefully:

• Medical societies are finally stepping up their messaging. The American Medical Association (plus 23 other expert societies) sent Secretary Kennedy a letter last week, urging him to reinstate the previous seventeen members. Other official statements are expected. Better late than never.

• Experts outside the CDC are considering creating a “shadow” ACIP, with hopes that private companies (who, by law, must cover vaccines for populations approved by ACIP votes) might opt to follow guidance other than the CDC’s new committee. This idea was floated to me by no less than Dr. Stanley Plotkin himself (a co-inventor of the rubella vaccine). Fortunately, others have had the same idea, as NBC News reported over the weekend. Whether insurance companies will listen is another question. Regardless, the votes will be binding for government-funded vaccine programs, which could be a major problem for access and affordability.

• Science communicators I know have been busy “pre-bunking” some of the expected garbage that we expect to see coming from the ACIP meeting this week. Highlights from the work being done by these excellent pro-science messengers include:

  • Why thimerosal doesn’t cause autism.

  • Why ethylmercury and methylmercury in vaccines do not cause harm.

  • Why Covid-19 and RSV vaccines are in fact safe during pregnancy.

I’ll share some of these resources later in the week. Also, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina and I will be on Substack Live to provide immediate analysis directly following the ACIP meeting’s scheduled conclusion at 1 p.m. ET this Thursday. We’ll send a calendar invite out for that soon and will post the session on our respective newsletters later.

Earlier Inside Medicine ACIP coverage:

• Will RFK’s new ACIP re-vote on vaccines the prior committee approved in April?

• A grand unified theory on what the hell is going on with the CDC's power vacuum.

• News: The CDC vaccine committee is set to vote on thimerosal in influenza vaccines. Vote revives and elevates a longstanding anti-vaccine conspiracy theory.

Top FDA regulator to leave in July. Jitters are jittering.

Meanwhile, over at the FDA, the acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay (a physician-lawyer) will retire in July, STAT News reported yesterday. Specifics were not given, but an email to her fellow FDA employees hinted at what’s going on: “I do not mean to let anyone down, but I believe I need to follow my instincts,” she wrote.

An early flurry of high-profile departures had slowed recently. It seems to me that other scientists remained in their jobs hoping they could make a difference from the inside by helping to hold the line against the various attacks from leadership under the newly-arrived Trump appointees. But retirements like Dr. Corrigan-Curay’s may indicate a certain fatalism settling in—one that I’ve heard in my recent conversations from FDA employees—that the agency is not reliably performing its core duties as it was previously.

Nor is this isolated. Last week Dr. Nicole Verdun was sent packing after disagreements with leadership. I’m told by FDA scientists that for all of their public appearances (with big Pharma CEOs, for example), newly installed leadership has not consulted with them on many typical matters, from vaccine policy decisions to routine processes. This has left morale lower than ever, even lower than when I last reported on this back in late April.

Indeed, a vicious cycle seems to be underway: DOGE-driven reductions in force left the agency short-handed. Those who remained either felt that they might be next or began to feel that they could no longer do their work sufficiently. So, many have started looking for other jobs (or early retirement). The effects are already apparent. When FDA scientists begin looking for work outside the agency, they must recuse themselves from any work that could cause any further conflicts of interest, should they soon depart for the private sector.

FDA leadership, for its part, seems to believe that the key functions of the multi-billion-dollar agency tasked with keeping Americans safe can be completed by consolidating power into the hands of a small number of Trump appointees—that is, with the help of some largely untested AI they rolled out this spring.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and supporting science, facts, and the actual American way!

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If you have information about any of the unfolding stories we are following, please email me or find me on Signal at InsideMedicine.88.