RFK’s New Vaccine Team: A Non-Hysterical Assessment

James Carville, the Democrats’ colorful campaigner and newly minted immunologist, recently declared: “Bobby Kennedy is going to kill more people than any cabinet secretary, maybe in history, with his idiotic vaccine policy.” 

His damning evidence? Health and Human Service Sec. Robert Kennedy’s firing of all 17 Biden administration appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and replacing the old group with a new team of top medical professionals and scientists, well credentialed in such fields as virology, immunology, infectious disease and molecular biology and hailing from such institutions as Harvard, Cornell, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eschewing Carville’s histrionics, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America expressed “concern.” The American Medical Association says Kennedy’s action has “undermined”  public trust. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s Independent socialist, called Kennedy’s personnel decision  “reckless” and called for a bipartisan congressional investigation into the matter.

So, these corporate titans and Washington’s left-wing political class are firmly united in their opposition to Secretary Kennedy’s changes.     

Breaking with Biden

Our elections have personnel and policy consequences. That’s the way real democracies work.

Kennedy’s new team at the Food and Drug Administration, as well as his ACIP appointees, are committed, among many other things, to double checking the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Note that Biden administration officials notoriously shirked that grave responsibility. They ignored clear evidence that the vaccines did not prevent infection or transmission but insisted on imposing unprecedented and illegal vaccine mandates. So much for “evidence-based” medicine.  

Worse, Biden administration officials also failed to warn us, among other things, of the documented dangers of myocarditis, or heart inflammation among young people; a fact confirmed in a damning report  recently issued by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and further underscored by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Arguably, no group of public officials has done more to increase “vaccine skepticism” than Team Biden.  

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s critics need to take a 500 mg chill pill.  

The seven new members of the ACIP have recently concluded their initial June meetings, listening to presentations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, among several others. They discussed a variety of vaccine topics, including the current guidelines for vaccinating mothers or infants to protect them from respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, a virus that infects the lungs and respiratory tract. It affects both adults and children and is especially common among young children. In some cases, RSV can be severe.

A Fresh Perspective

The new panel has recommended broadening the RSV vaccine options for children and infants. In the case of pregnant mothers, they are currently vaccinated with Abysvo and infants are injected with Nirsevimab. The panel considered adding a new vaccine, Clesrovimab. It is a long-lasting monoclonal antibody that can serve as an alternative to Nirsevimab for infants.

The new ACIP voted 5 to 2 to approve Clesrovimab as an option among its recommended guidelines to the CDC. PhRMA approves, by the way.

Perhaps the most controversial item the panel addressed was the use of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative containing ethylmercury, a variant of Mercury distinct from methylmercury which unquestionably poses toxic risks.

This preservative, designed to prevent bacterial infection in multidose vials, has been at a center of bitter debate over whether it contributes to autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Though thimerosal had been more widely used in the past as a vaccine preservative, in 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service jointly recommended the rapid removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines. Thus, out of an abundance of caution it has largely disappeared from standard childhood vaccines in the United States.

In their first meeting, the new ACIP addressed the specific question of whether thimerosal should still be used as a preservative in seasonal flu and whether the flu vaccines should be administered in single or multidose vials.

The panel voted 5 to 1 (one abstaining) to recommend seasonal flu vaccination for all adults in a “single dose” formulation without thimerosal. The panel also recommended the same for pregnant women and children aged 18 and younger.  This is a significant change from previous practice.

Open Debates

Kennedy’s critics should also take note: The new ACIP is not a debate-free rubber stamp operation.

 In his vigorous dissent on the majority’s decision on the thimerosal issue, for example, Dr. H. Cody Meissner, who previously served on the ACIP, asked his colleagues to focus on the preponderance of the scientific evidence that has accumulated on the topic. The hard evidence, he insists, thus far does not show that thimerosal has caused any harm; and that the known risk of the flu outweighs the “nonexistent” risk of thimerosal.

Likewise, Dr. Retsef Levi from MIT, who voted against the majority position on the changes to the RSV vaccination program, called for a far more extensive investigation into long-term effects of immunizations and a much closer attention to the relationship between adverse events and vaccination. Levi asked his colleagues to consider their formal recommendations to the CDC from the perspective of a parent.

For the record: concerning the panel’s action on thimerosal and any revisitation of the childhood vaccine schedule, PhRMA “remains concerned.”      

The ACIP’s role is solely advisory. The panel only makes recommendations to the director of the CDC concerning the vaccine schedule. Based on her record, Dr. Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the new CDC director, is a highly qualified specialist in infectious disease. During her Senate confirmation hearing, Monarez said she would prioritize access to childhood vaccines and that vaccines have generally reduced child mortality, including the vital measles inoculations.

In response to the senators’ questions concerning the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA technology of the COVID-19 vaccines, Monarez cited a previous FDA assessment of its safety and effectiveness, though Dr. Marty Makary, the new FDA Commissioner, has nonetheless committed to pursue a well justified reevaluation of that previous assessment. Meanwhile, in a sharp reversal of the Biden administration’s policy, the CDC recognizes myocarditis (heart inflammation) as a significant adverse effect associated with the COVID-19 vaccine injection in young adults, particularly young men, and the public will henceforth be made aware of this determination.   

Next Steps

Adverse events from COVID-19 vaccination are well documented and recently confirmed in sworn testimony before the Senate. Based on existing data on the COVID-19 vaccines regarding certain adverse events, it is already appropriate for the FDA to issue a “black box” warning–a standard public alert relating to potential injury or death from an approved drug.  Likewise, it makes eminent sense for FDA to approve a commercially available test that would enable persons to determine levels of the toxic coronavirus spike protein transmitted through COVID-19 vaccination.

Kennedy selected a new team of medical professionals and scientists who are highly qualified, apparently measured in their judgments, and clearly dedicated to public health and especially public safety. Kennedy’s hyperbolic critics need to calm down.

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