Robert F Kennedy Jr has pulled paid ads for vaccines and postponed a meeting of key vaccine advisors in one of his first moves as health secretary.
Kennedy ordered the CDC to scrub its ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign that juxtaposed a lion next to a kitten as an analogy for how the shot ‘tames’ the virus.
The campaign was a response to falling flu vaccination rates and an especially vicious flu season.
Kennedy wants the CDC to focus its communications on vaccines on ‘informed consent’ – a hallmark of medical practice that involves informing the patient of all medical risks and benefits of any intervention.
Meanwhile, the year’s first meeting of the CDC’s influential panel of vaccine experts has been delayed indefinitely for the first time in over 40 years in a non-emergency situation.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was due to meet next week to discuss vaccines for Covid, meningococcal virus, influenza, RSV, HPV, and mpox.
Rescheduling an ACIP meeting is not new, but it raises the question of whether the government will abide by expert scientific opinion with a noted vaccine skeptic at the agency’s helm.
RFK wants the CDC to emphasize ‘informed consent’ in vaccine messaging, ensuring patients understand all risks and benefits. But doctors fear shifting the focus too heavily toward risks—when the most common side effect is minor pain—could discourage people from getting vaccines that save lives
The CDC has scrubbed its successful ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign, an anology for how the shot ‘tames’ a potentially severe illness
The moves, which come at the tail-end of Kennedy’s first week as Secretary of HHS, have sparked worry among some health professionals.
They fear changing the narrative to potentially focus on the risks of the vaccines, whose primary side effect is pain at the injection site, could result in far fewer people getting potentially life-saving shots.
Erin Burns, associate director for communications in the CDC’s influenza division, said of the campaign: ‘We’re trying to get the message out there that just because you still got sick doesn’t mean that the vaccine didn’t benefit you. It could be that it saved your life.’
During his Senate confirmation saga, RFK was pressed on the issue of vaccines by Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, a physician and staunch advocate of vaccinations.
Sen Cassidy was particularly alarmed at Mr Kennedy’s repetition over the years of controversial claims that vaccines are linked to rising rates of autism.
RFK made assurances that he would not alter the existing vaccine schedule and said he would provide advanced notice to Congress before implementing any changes to vaccine safety guidelines.
But soon after his confirmation, Mr Kennedy told HHS staff that ‘nothing is off limits’ when it comes to pinpointing the leading causes of chronic illnesses in children, including alterations to national vaccine recommendations.
Changing the narrative to potentially focus disproportionately on the risks of the vaccines, whose primary side effect is pain at the injection site, could result in far fewer people getting potentially life-saving shots
The ACIP generally discusses vaccine candidates’ safety at length publicly and votes on whether to recommend FDA approval.
The committee’s input has a major impact on both the FDA’s final decision as well as insurance coverage for those vaccines.
Delaying those meetings raises the risk of preventable illness, such as flu, wreaking havoc.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told NBC News: ‘I’ve been associated with ACIP for 40 years and I don’t recall a previously postponed meeting’ outside of Covid.
‘The postponement of a routinely scheduled meeting is concerning.’
The official reason given for delaying the meeting next week was to accommodate public comment in advance of the meeting.
RFK released his blueprint for reevaluating recommended vaccines, shifting research priorities, removing legal protections for vaccine manufacturers, and modifying vaccine advertising practices years ago.
It calls for subjecting vaccines to the same rigorous approval process as other drugs, mandating automated adverse event reporting, eliminating conflicts of interest in federal vaccine approvals, and reevaluating all vaccines recommended before evidence-based guidelines were established.
The plan is not overtly anti-vax, but it echoes anti-vaccine rhetoric by questioning the legitimacy of current vaccine policies.
For instance, calling for vaccines to undergo the same approval process as other drugs ignores the fact that they already face rigorous testing. Emphasizing vaccine injuries without precise data on their rarity can create unwarranted fear.
Experts in epidemiology and virology have long sounded the alarm about RFK’s anti-vax views.
In response to the news about the pulled CDC flu shot campaign, Dr Paul Offit, a pediatric immunologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s independent vaccine advisory committee, said: ‘They don’t want the CDC to be in a position to recommend vaccines for children. They want to eliminate their recommending status.
‘So I think this might be the first step in that.’
