SEATTLE, WA – Dr. Helen Chu gained attention early in the COVID-19 pandemic as her repurposed flu research project identified the first case of coronavirus spreading person-to-person in the United States.
She and her colleagues carried out this work in defiance of the federal government. And her efforts to accelerate the pandemic response later earned her a “Washingtonian of the Year” award from a state leadership board.
After a two-year vetting process, the University of Washington scientist landed a spot last year on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s influential panel of vaccine experts.
But on Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Chu and the 16 other members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“I really worry about the health and safety of people in our country and the future of our public health infrastructure,” Chu told reporters Thursday in a call with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
Kennedy said he wanted to restore trust in a panel he believed was rife with conflicts of interest.
And on Wednesday, he named eight replacement members, including several with track records criticizing vaccines.
Kennedy himself has a history of promoting skepticism and unfounded theories about vaccines.
He came to Olympia in 2019, for example, to advocate against legislation that would have made it harder for parents to opt their children out of the measles, mumps and rubella shot in the middle of a measles outbreak.
The medical field largely condemned this week’s firings.
For over 60 years, the committee has reviewed vaccine efficacy and recommended who should receive which shots. The guidance goes to the CDC director, who usually follows the group’s decisions. These recommendations impact what vaccines insurers will cover, as opposed to forcing patients to pay out of pocket.
Members typically serve four-year terms.
The purge comes on the heels of Kennedy announcing unilaterally that federal health officials would stop recommending COVID vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
The federal panel is set to meet later this month, with recommendation votes scheduled for several vaccines, including for coronavirus.
“RFK Jr is not just crossing a red line for public health,” said Murray, a Democrat from Washington. “He is sprinting into dangerous, uncharted territory in support of totally deranged conspiracies, and he is dragging us all along with him.”
‘Gold standard’
Chu used the example of a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, to show the importance of the committee’s work, and that it’s not just a rubber stamp for immunizations.
When reviewing data on the proposed vaccine, the panel found a risk of the rare neurological disorder known as Guillain-Barré Syndrome. So Chu, an infectious diseases professor at the UW, and her fellow members decided to recommend the shot only for older adults at a higher risk of getting severe symptoms from RSV.
“I think this example really illustrates the approach that the ACIP takes, that what we do is rooted in science, and that the decisions we make do not necessarily benefit the companies that have invested heavily to develop these vaccines,” Chu said. “As a result, ACIP is widely regarded as an international gold standard for vaccine decision making.”
Lacking trust in the committee’s potential recommendations, Chu advised doctors to turn to groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for science-based vaccine guidance.
She worries that turning the previously “independent, unbiased” committee into something driven by “one person’s beliefs,” Americans will lose trust in national vaccine policy. This could lead to a patchwork of policies that differ state to state, Chu said.
“Washington state is a place where we have experts and scientists who work together,” she said. “There are other states where this may not exist, or where they may not choose to recommend vaccines, so that is going to create a lot of chaos.”
Murray pleaded with her Republican colleagues in the Senate to tell Kennedy his moves are unacceptable. To get confirmed, Kennedy made concessions to moderate Republicans, namely Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, over how much he would disrupt existing vaccine policy.
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