RFK’s claims on vaccine advisers’ conflicts of interest don’t check out : Shots

Secretary Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to end the conflict of interest from government agencies, which he is now in charge of, accused of close ties between employees and the pharmaceutical industry.

In his authentication hearing about this role, he took the goal of the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention Committee, which plays a key role in setting policies around the vaccine schedules and access, the Security Vaccination Advisory Committee, or ACIP.

Kennedy said The Committee on January 29: “I think 97 % of it had conflicts. I think we need to end these conflicts and make sure that scientists are doing science.” He was referring to a major government report on the disclosure of ethics, which he said came from the “government surveillance investigation committee”.

NPR tracked This 2009 reportAt the moment, the CDC’s vaccine talked to those involved in the Advisory Committee, and found that Kennedy’s statement about it was wrong.

“Right now, what we are getting is a complete misrepresentation of the 20 -year -old report, which was being improved before this report was released.” Dr. Tom FredenCDC Director from 2009 to 2017. He signed the agency Letter in response In the report in 2009.

Kennedy reiterated his opinion that the agency’s federal advisory panel is full of members who have “severe, intense conflicts of interest” in the subsequent hearing. On Fox News.

These statements have raised concerns with public health supporters that the Kennedy members are laying the foundation for removing the CDC vaccine from the Advisory Committee, and are replaced by members with their past advocacy against vaccines. Prior to its current role, Kennedy founded the Anti -Vaccine Organization Children’s Health Defense and served as chairman of the group from 2015 to 2023.

If panel members are replaced with others to avoid vaccine diseases, “you may find worse recommendations or you can make the vaccine less accessible,” Dr. Walter Orientin, who served as a US -based Professor of Emperor of the CDC in CDC from 1988 to 2004.

The Public Vaccine Advisory Committee meetings have always announced and documentary documents of interest, but on Friday, the Kennedy team draws the last 25 years of disputes together. In a list And posted it on the CDC website.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote to the NPR in an email, “Instead of burying conflicts of interest within minutes of meeting, the device quickly provides conflicts for ACIP members’ interests.”

In response to a request to comment on this story, Nixon said: “Secretary Kennedy is determined to ensure radical transparency in HHS.”

Most of the issues on the revelations were paperwork errors

2009 report, which title is “CDC Ethics Program for Special Government Employees in Federal Advisory Committees“For HHS comes from the Inspector General’s office.

This is an audit of ethical paperwork filed in 2007. It currently covers all 17 CDC advisory committees, which included around 250 members, who guided them on topics such as smoking, tuberculosis, and improving clinical labs.

Review, contrary to Kennedy’s characteristics, did not have serious conflicts in most members.

What he found was difficulty in the Incisters of the Committee members: 97 % of the financial inflammatory forms filed, as people put information in the wrong part of the form or make a section incomplete, or forget about the date.

Dr. Dell Morris, who chaired the CDC vaccine advisory committee from 2007 to 2009, remembers working through working. Those shapes.

“It was a traumatic process – like doing your tax but worse,” he says. “You had to make a list of every category that was listed [each] Name every stock or mutual fund in a retirement account such as Portfolio, “.

Morris says the ACIP will be “complete” in terms of compliance with morality needs compared to other committees, Morris says.

In response to the NPR investigation, the HHS Office of Inspector General’s Public Affairs expert, Melissa Ramley, said it is certainly difficult to say because the report did not break the analysis by a specific committee, and this information is not accessible.

She added that she could not “confirm” that Kennedy’s statement about ACIP at the time of our review was “true.”

According to Freden, the way Kennedy features this report is equivalent to “classical wrong information”.

He says, “You start with something that has the wisdom of truth – that there was a problem with completing these forms.” “And you are contradictory to this [by saying] There are conflicts of interest, which are absolutely wrong in this matter. “

When it comes to real conflicts of interest that should be focused on, the number in this report is dramatically less than Kennedy’s allegations.

The report found that seven of the seven members of the CDC’s advisory committees voted on matters that they were not allowed to vote clearly. All were in the same committee, though the report does not name which is.

“I am sure that this report is correct, but when you go down on things that may be a problem, it is 3 percent,” said Dr. Carol Baker, a member of the Vaccine Advisory Committee from 2006 to 2012, who served as a chair after Morris.

This is a clear violation of a clear policy, so the Inspector General’s office investigated these cases – and vowed that he did not reach the level of criminal violations, but at that time the CDC’s “systemic lack” was largely created.

This report also made a mistake in CDC for not identifying Capability Interest conflicts for 58 % of Committee members. In response, the agency said that the report has raised the issue because it has counted a category that is considered to be exempt: researchers work by an institution that has a grant related to the affairs of the committee, whether they go through other departments in different departments.

Taking a seriously dispute of interest

The Baker recalled that the vaccine consulting committee was tough in implementing the rules of morality. In 2006, she was an hour or two in her first public rally as a new voting member, when the CDC staff interrupted the operation. “He tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Now come with me.’ I said, ‘Shall I get my purse?’ – ‘No, don’t bring anything.’ Baker says the meeting was dramatic to leave.

The CDC legal team staff mistakenly convinced that the interests based on the forms presented by the baker had a “serious controversy”, and removed it from the meeting. Baker says, “It turned out that it was just a scientific mistake, but the fact is that he was kicked close to his first meeting because he believed his interest dispute reflects how seriously he took the issue.

Many recent ACIP members who have gone through this process in the past five years told the NPR that the process was extreme. He has filled the form for himself and his family members, and there were interviews with CDC staff who were assigned to manage the interests of interest.

A former member requested not to disclose his name to avoid retaliation, “There has been such a public eye on the committee in the past decade – even more.” This process was very strict. “

Members must announce financial relations and relations with vaccine companies, and separate those who contradict their ability to serve in the Advisory Committee, which is a voluntary, unpaid position.

Former relationships are often available for research purposes, the former ACIP member says: “We’re not shilling for the manufacturer – we’re trying to answer scientific questions.” Researchers sometimes work with manufacturers to test their products, or give advice on the best methods.

Baker, who is known by his peers “Group -off Group B Streptococcus Prevention,“Remember to abandon its participation with a vaccine -producing company against bacteria to serve on ACIP.

“It was personally a major sacrifice,” said Baker. He made an important scientific discovery that led to the vaccine. “I was very emotionally involved, and he felt that I was the best person to advise him and he paid me my time, which I think is fair.”

When joining the vaccine advisory committee, it cut ties with the company for six years. It is more important than serving the public: “I thought I could do more good in my life to get children in my life to get sick or to deteriorate or to die from my work on ACIP.”

Dissepected statements can smell doubts about vaccines

Former CDC director Freden agrees that conflicts in interest are a cause for concern. He says, “It is important to avoid the appearance of inappropriate and inappropriate. It is important that any potential dispute of interests that can affect a recommendation uncertainly be investigated.”

But, Freden says Kennedy’s misleading statements “can damage the confidence of what is a very transparent, factual process,” in which the committee debates and makes vaccine policies. Public direct stream meetings.

Freden says the Kennedy team has already postponed or canceled some public meetings of the CDC and FDA vaccine advisory committees in which “how to save children from meningitis, who should get a new vaccine, which should be jointly updated and updated.”

In Emuri, Orion Stein says, dwarfing the integrity of vaccine policy making can give people less vaccine. “It really frighten me. I have seen the measles, I have seen polio issues.” “I am very worried that what is happening now will increase the vaccine and reduce the return of these diseases.”

It also hinders the development of new and better vaccines, which can lead to a healthy future, says Orientin.

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