AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups

By MIKE STOBBE Associated Press NEW YORK AP U S wellness functionaries have explained more than a half-dozen of the nation s top biological organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations The administration recounted the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices The organizations include the American Curative Association the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America I m concerned and distressed revealed Dr William Schaffner a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups Related Articles Veteran federal judge T S Ellis III who presided over trial of Trump aide Paul Manafort has died Senate delays August recess for now as Trump presses for more confirmations Trump removes official overseeing jobs facts after dismal employment description Trump orders nuclear submarines repositioned after provocative statements from Russia Democrats launching summer blitz to press Republicans on Trump spending plan He disclosed the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance as patients may hear the authorities say one thing and hear their doctors say another One email revealed the organizations are special interest groups and therefore are expected to have a bias based on their constituency and or population that they represent A federal fitness official on Friday approved the action which was first broadcasted by Bloomberg The decision was the latest enhancement in what has become a saga involving the ACIP The committee created in makes recommendations to the Centers for Sickness Control and Prevention on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used CDC directors have traditionally almost inevitably approved those recommendations which are widely heeded by doctors and greenlight insurance coverage for shots U S Fitness Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U S regime s top soundness official and in June abruptly fired the entire ACIP after accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics The workgroups typically include not only committee members but also a number of experts from health and scientific organizations At workgroup meetings members evaluate input from vaccine manufacturers and the CDC and formulate vaccination recommendation proposals to be presented to the full committee The structure was created for several reasons Schaffner explained The professional groups provide input about what might and might not be manageable for doctors to implement And it helped build respect and trust in ACIP recommendations having the buy-in of respected anatomical organizations he reported Workgroup members are vetted for conflicts of interest to make sure than no one who had say made money from working on a hepatitis vaccine was placed on the hepatitis committee Schaffner noted Also disinvited from the groups were the American Academy of Family Physicians the American College of Physicians the American Geriatrics Society the American Osteopathic Association the National Health Association and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases In a joint comment Friday the AMA and several of the other organizations stated To remove our deep medicinal expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible dangerous to our nation s fitness and will further undermine inhabitants and clinician trust in vaccines They urged the administration to reconsider the move so we can continue to feel confident in its vaccine recommendations for our patients Selected of the professional organizations have criticized Kennedy s changes to the ACIP and three of the disinvited groups last month joined a lawsuit against the governing body over Kennedy s decision to stop recommending COVID- vaccines for most of children and pregnant women In a social media post Friday one of the Kennedy-appointed ACIP members Retsef Levi wrote that the working groups will engage experts from even broader set of disciplines Levi a business management professor also wrote that working group membership will be based on merit expertise not membership in organizations proven to have conflicts of interest and radical narrow view of society wellness HHS executives have not stated which people are going to be added to the ACIP workgroups The Associated Press Medical and Science Department receives promotion from the Howard Hughes Healthcare Institute s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content