GoKawiilA member of an influential federal vaccine advisory panel made a dramatic claim Thursday afternoon that the panel had been disbanded following a temporary block by a federal judge and would be entirely reconstituted—again. But, just hours later, he retracted the claim, saying that it was merely a possibility.
The claim immediately caused a stir online. Public health experts began to cheer the news, given that most of the current members hold anti-vaccine views and have little to no qualifications for being on the panel—which is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Current members were hand-selected by anti-vaccine health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had summarily fired all 17 experts previously on ACIP. Kennedy’s new ACIP members have since held several chaotic meetings in which they voted to roll-back CDC’s evidence-based vaccine guidance.
On Monday, Federal Judge Brian Murphy issued a temporary injunction blocking Kennedy’s ACIP members and their votes after finding that they were improperly appointed and vaccine recommendations were changed without procedural requirements. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups, who challenged Kennedy’s anti-vaccine efforts.
Then came the claim Thursday. Robert Malone, who is vice chair of Kennedy’s dubious ACIP line-up, wrote on social media that afternoon that “ACIP has been disbanded.”
“The government’s response to the AAP lawsuit and judge Murphey’s[sic] injunction is to disband and then recreate a new ACIP committee, as this will take less time than would be required to file and prosecute an appeal,” he wrote.
Malone also complained that the health department didn’t have any plans to defend ACIP members from Murphy’s alleged “defamatory characterization,” which was that most ACIP members, including Malone, largely didn’t appear to have any expertise in vaccines and/or immunizations.