Sen. Cassidy Seeks Postponement of Vaccine Panel
In the wake of CDC director Susan Monarez’s ouster, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is calling on HHS to postpone a just-announced Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting that is scheduled to review the immunization schedule of Covid-19 vaccines approved by FDA 8/27 and other vaccination schedules, including the use of the Hepatitis B vaccine, the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella vaccine, and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus vaccine (see Federal Register notice).
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting,” Cassidy said in an 8/28 statement. “These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”
Monarez’s departure came about after she reportedly clashed with HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over controversial shifts in Covid-19 vaccine guidance. These included narrowing vaccine eligibility (excluding healthy adults and children unless high-risk), and removing the existing ACIP members and replacing them with hand-picked members having vaccine-skeptical leanings. Monarez refused to “rubber-stamp” these policies or to fire senior CDC scientists who opposed them.
Her dismissal triggered a wave of resignations — from the CDC’s chief medical officer, head of vaccine recommendations, vaccine safety chief, to the leader of public health data. These departures reflect deep unrest over growing politicization and demoralization within the agency.
Across the aisle, many Democrat lawmakers are calling for Kennedy’s removal. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a HELP Committee member, posted on X: “If there are any adults left in the White House: we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of CDC. FIRE HIM.” HELP Committee ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demanded a hearing. “It’s outrageous that secretary Kennedy is trying to fire the CDC director — after only a few weeks on the job — for her commitment to public health and vaccines.”
The departing CDC officials are also sharing their reportedly untenable situations while at CDC under Kennedy’s leadership. In a scathing resignation letter 8/28, CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director Demetre Daskalakis said he was “unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health. The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten(s) the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership.
“We are seven months into the new administration,” Daskalakis continued, “and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS uses over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.”