I wrote a SBAR today for my health system related to the new Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. I thought I would share some of it here.
Situation
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) removed all members of the Advisory Panel on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on June 10th. The decisions of this panel set vaccine schedules, approvals, and policy, which also leads to coverage decisions by insurance companies for vaccinations. The members of this panel could change vaccine availability in the US, particularly around COVID vaccines.
Background
One June 11th, RFK Jr. named new members to ACIP, which is criticized as being filled by unqualified misinformation spreaders.
- Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln – No controversy other than advocacy for fish consumption during pregnancy.
- Dr. Martin Kulldorff – One of the coauthors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for spreading COVID among “lower-risk” populations. He was opposed to lockdowns and vaccine mandates and dismissed from Harvard for these views. He also supported the hands-off approach of Sweden, which had the worst COVID mortality rate of Scandinavian countries.
- Dr. Retsef Levi – Coauthored a preprint on 4/29/25 with Florida Surgeon General Jospeh Ladapo suggesting that COVID vaccination increased all cause mortality compared to the unvaccinated population (OR: 1.384), which led to claims that the Pfizer vaccine “likely killed over 470,000 Americans” further contributing to much of the vaccine hesitancy in the US.
- Dr. Robert Malone – Claims to have invented mRNA technology and is one of the biggest spreaders of vaccine misinformation, particularly around the risk of the vaccines.
- Dr. Cody Meissner – Served on ACIP in the past, but has voiced concerns about universal COVID vaccine mandates for children, arguing that the risk to children is low. That may be true for the acute phase of the disease, but completely disregards the endovascular damage and chronic disease sequela in the future
- Dr. James Pagano – An emergency room physician with no vaccine research or epidemiology background, suggesting and ideological appointment.
- Vicky Pebsworth, PhD – A nurse who has served on the board of and is a volunteer director of the National Vaccine Information Center, a known source of vaccine misinformation, such as linking vaccines to autism.
- Dr. Michael Ross – No information on vaccine views available.
RFK Jr. misled senators during his confirmation hearing, specifically related to do with his antivaccine views.
His actions with ACIP suggest that he is going down a path of either limiting vaccines or removing them from the market altogether.
Assessment
The US is just entering what could be a surge of two different variants, LP.8.1 as the current dominant strain found in wastewater and NB.1.8.1, which is likely to quickly become the dominant strain.
This could pose a problem because of the low vaccine booster uptake in the US, which is likely due to the large amounts of disinformation that has been spread around them.
The new ACIP meeting is scheduled from 6/25 – 6/27. It is very possible that they may choose to limit or withdraw COVID vaccines from the market given the overall antivaccination stance of most of the group.
They may also choose to revise childhood and routine vaccination schedules.
Recommendations
I’m leaving this section out here because it has to do with some healthcare provision strategy, but suffice to say that I’m very much advocating for the health and safety of patients and staff.
