Protesters rally as new CDC vaccine panel meets in Atlanta

The meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee in Atlanta on Wednesday was unlike anything Dr. Deblina Datta had ever seen during her 10 years of working, on and off, with the world-renowned committee.

The carefully chosen group of 17 scientists and doctors from the committee’s last meeting was gone, ousted two weeks ago by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Since then, Kennedy has only chosen half of their replacements, with one apparently dropping out before the new group took their seats Wednesday.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

The committee is charged with deciding if the CDC should stand behind recommending vaccinations against various diseases for a majority of Americans — and has influence over whether insurance companies will cover the vaccination charges.

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Then, Datta said she was floored when the group’s newly minted chairman, Martin Kulldorff, introduced himself by explaining he had been fired from a hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School for not taking the COVID vaccine. Datta watched the committee meeting over a livestream broadcast.

“That’s a very concerning way to introduce yourself for this type of role,” Datta said.

Kennedy has said previously that the reconfiguration was meant to prioritize “the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.”

“The public must know that unbiased science — evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest — guides the recommendations of our health agencies,” he has previously said in a statement.

And Datta had yet to learn that one of the presenters scheduled for Thursday’s committee meeting, vaccine critic Lyn Redwood, had apparently changed her presentation after Reuters reported that one of the studies she cited in her report does not exist.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Redwood formerly led the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense. Her presentation was on thimerosal, a preservative in vaccines that is a red-button issue among anti-vaccine activists.

Scientists have investigated, and as of Wednesday, the CDC says thimerosal has a record of being “very safe.” It was removed from most childhood vaccines decades ago.

Datta discussed her concerns along with other CDC retirees, employees and advocates at a protest outside the CDC’s main entrance in Atlanta Wednesday evening.

A group gathers weekly to support CDC employees as they leave for the day. But this week, they called for a larger rally to mark Kennedy’s upending of the vaccine group, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Datta worked for years on a group that presents evidence to the committee and then worked with foreign scientists, teaching them how the committee operates so they could use it as a model in their home countries.

“So the ACIP is an important world voice in vaccine policy,” Datta said. “By eroding confidence in that, it’s very dangerous.”

A fellow CDC retiree, Dr. Tony Fiore, helped organize the protest. Fiore, too, was appalled by the changes to the committee.

“They don’t have any history of work in immunization for the most part, other than they are actively dismissive of vaccines, using studies that are not scientific,” Fiore said.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Fiore led the working group on flu for several years and has presented to the committee many times, he said. They were scientists asking rigorous questions, and presenting was tough, he told the crowd at the protest.

“What has gone on with ACIP, I would term it reckless,” Fiore said.

The crowd of protesters came and stayed in the withering 97-degree, late afternoon heat. They dressed as pathogens that vaccines have worked to fight, which included measles in a white tunic with big red dots on the white cloth and on her limbs; HPV walking around adorned with white, pink and blue balloons; and COVID wearing one giant red bumpy plastic balloon.

Abby Tighe, a lead organizer, came in blue balloons as pneumococcus.

Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC

Georgia Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, whose district includes many CDC employees, also spoke to the crowd and told them their energy is important.

“We are at such a precarious moment for public health,” she said. “The worst fears are now coming true with (Kennedy’s) assault on ACIP.”

Datta wasn’t dressed in costume and didn’t speak at the microphone. As she left, a reporter told her about the alleged mistake in Redwood’s thimerosal presentation.

“I don’t recognize what’s happening,” she said.

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