A newly released charter for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel does not commit to any number of meetings and adds organizations that have pushed back on CDC guidance as liaisons.
The new charter, released on June 24, says meetings of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be held at the discretion of the ACIP’s designated federal officer.
The previous charter said meetings shall be held approximately three times a year.
The new charter adds four groups as new liaisons to the committee. They are the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Independent Medical Alliance, the Medical Academy of Pediatrics and Special Needs, and Physicians for Informed Consent.
Physicians for Informed Consent and other groups have pushed back against CDC vaccine guidance and positions on infectious diseases, such as the CDC’s stance on measles.
“We are honored and grateful to now have a seat at the ACIP table … where our points can be better heard,” Dr. Shira Miller, founder and president of Physicians for Informed Consent, told The Epoch Times in an email.
The CDC still provides management and support services to ACIP under the new charter, but that support comes from the CDC’s Office of the Chief of Staff as instructed by the CDC’s director, rather than the CDC’s Office of the Director and the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America is one of the plaintiffs in a case that resulted in a federal judge blocking updates to the CDC’s vaccine guidance, and staying the 2025 and January appointments of ACIP members.
The panel has not met since that ruling, which has been appealed, was handed down in March.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America is one of the plaintiffs in a case that resulted in a federal judge blocking updates to the CDC’s vaccine guidance. That ruling has been appealed.
ACIP provides advice to the CDC. That advice is typically accepted without alteration.
Charters for federal advisory committees, such as ACIP, must be updated every two years under federal law.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had authorized a new charter published in April, but officials rescinded the update about a month later.
That version of the charter had loosened membership requirements, adding expertise in areas such as toxicology, data science, and health economics, as well as in immunization practices, vaccine research, and vaccine efficacy and safety assessment.
The new charter says that members “shall collectively represent a balanced range of scientific, clinical, and public health expertise relevant to the Committee’s mission.”
The new charter retains several other updates from the charter released in the spring, including a provision stating that ACIP may review vaccination recommendations from other countries.
