Democrats on the Senate Health Committee launched an investigation on Tuesday into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s firing of all members of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory panel.
Led by ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, the lawmakers asked for detailed information about why Kennedy dismissed members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), who else was involved in the process, and how the new members were identified and vetted.
“By removing all 17 of ACIP’s members and replacing them with eight individuals handpicked to advance your anti-vaccine agenda, you have put decades of non-partisan, science-backed work— and, as a result, Americans’ lives—at risk,” the lawmakers wrote.
In June, Kennedy fired all members of the panel in an unprecedented escalation of his quest to reshape federal health agencies and vaccine policy. He then handpicked eight replacements, many of whom are vaccine critics.
He accused the panelists of being beholden to corporate interests and said the panel was rife with conflicts, but did not provide any evidence.
The panelists are not political appointees. ACIP members meet and discuss data to determine which vaccines are recommended and for whom. If the CDC director signs off on the panel’s recommendations, ACIP-recommended vaccines must be covered by health insurance. Under many state laws, ACIP-recommended vaccines are mandated for schoolchildren.
The lawmakers on Tuesday called on Kennedy to provide information on the firings by Aug. 12, including details of the alleged conflict of interest for each fired member and how their conflicts differ from ones they previously disclosed.
Kennedy has promised transparency and department officials pledged to release ethics forms on the new panelists prior to their meeting last month, but that never happened. A searchable database of ACIP members lists conflicts of interest for just two of Kennedy’s picks, though it’s much more detailed for the dismissed members.
The senators also asked if Kennedy plans to appoint any additional members to the panel. Only seven members participated in last month’s meeting. Kennedy claimed in a Fox News interview in June that he would allow Health Committee chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to place one of his own candidates on the panel.
In addition to Sanders, the letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine (Va.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Andy Kim (N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.) and Angela Alsobrooks (Md.).
The lawmakers said they launched a partisan investigation because a Sanders request for a bipartisan inquiry in June went unheeded.
Cassidy on Tuesday said he doesn’t see the point in an investigation, because Democrats will be able to question Kennedy directly the next time he testifies.
“The Secretary will be back before us. He’s been before us once. He’s going to be back before us again,” Cassidy told reporters.
“I’m not sure what an investigation is going to accomplish, more than the guy who apparently made the decision, sitting there before us, taking questions from everybody on the panel,” he continued.
