(with thanks to Global Health Now)
'HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday removed all experts on a vaccine advisory committee that guides the CDC — and will replace them with members he selects.
- Kennedy argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the 17-member committee “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”...'
Public health leaders swiftly condemned the move:
“This is one of the darkest days in modern public health history," said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), per CIDRAP. “Science does not matter to Mr. Kennedy.”
“We’ll look back at this as a grave mistake that sacrificed decades of scientific rigor, undermined public trust, and opened the door for fringe theories rather than facts,” said Tom Frieden, Resolve to Save Lives president and CEO, and former CDC director, per AP.
COMMENT (NPW): It is extraordinary that a single individual can clear away a whole national scientific committee 'and replace them with members he selects'. For almost any other committee - even local ones - there are checks and balances to help ensure that those with the competence are elected. This misplaced power is a threat to evidence-informed policymaking.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org