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June 10, 2025 09:49 AM UTC

Colorado Doctor Among Those Fired from Critical Vaccine Advisory Committee

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by: Colorado Pols

While you were watching the immigration protests in Los Angeles that are now spreading to other cities — including Denver — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr was dismantling an important vaccine advisory committee in an unprecedented move.

We’ll get to the local angle in a moment, but first here’s The Washington Post with the broad strokes:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations for the United States, an unprecedented move by Kennedy and escalation of his overhaul of federal vaccination policy.

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said he decided to retire the 17 independent vaccine experts from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices because the panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and has become a “rubber stamp” for vaccines. Doctors and pharmacists look to the committee’s recommendations to decide which shots to offer.

Kennedy has long criticized the panel, which makes vaccine recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the recommendations are approved by the director, they become official public health guidance and are required to be covered by insurance plans at no cost to consumers.

The ouster of ACIP members marks the latest move by Kennedy that raised alarms among proponents of vaccines. He also forced out the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine scientist, hired a vaccine skeptic to scrutinize CDC vaccine safety data and has offered mixed messages about measles vaccines amid one of the worst outbreaks in decades. In May, Kennedy bypassed ACIP to say federal health officials would no longer recommend coronavirus vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.

Kennedy’s beef with vaccines is well-known; he is the founder of an anti-vaccine group unironically called “Children’s Health Defense.” The committee in question, known as the ACIP, is responsible for reviewing data on the safety and efficacy of vaccines and making recommendations on when they should be used and who should receive them. While the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ultimately decides whether to enact the committees recommendations, it has generally followed the advice of the ACIP.

As John Ingold reports for The Colorado Sun, one of the now-former members of the ACIP is a well-respected Colorado doctor:

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…[Pols emphasis]

…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.

Colorado lawmakers were worried about this move from RFK Jr, as Ingold continues:

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. [Pols emphasis]

A nationwide measles outbreak now includes 14 known infections in Colorado. Measles is entirely preventable with vaccinations.

One thought on “Colorado Doctor Among Those Fired from Critical Vaccine Advisory Committee”

The realist says:

June 10, 2025 at 10:13 am

So in this case the just deserts for the evildoers – getting sick with preventable disease – will also affect the good people, sadly. Maybe some of the monsters will get COVID, the flu, and measles all at the same time . . .

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Colorado Doctor Among Those Fired from Critical Vaccine Advisory Committee

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