CDC launches 'conflicts of interest' page about vaccine advisory panel

(The Hill) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a page on Friday listing the conflicts of interest reported by members of a key vaccine advisory committee.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hailed it as another step towards "radical transparency," while one former member of the panel called it a "distraction."

The CDC's new web tool lists all the declared conflicts of interest for the outside expert members of the agency's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since 2000. Across the nearly 40 current and former voting members of ACIP, there are roughly 200 items listed, though not all are necessarily conflicts of interest.

Current ACIP voting member Yvonne Maldonado, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, has two items listed under her name but one is explicitly stated to represent "no conflict of interest." The item instead is a note relaying she had previously served on the data and safety monitoring board for Pfizer meningococcal vaccine trials and served in similar roles for other vaccine trials.

Kennedy, who spent decades casting doubt on the efficacy and safety of vaccines before ascending to his current role, shared the new webpage on X, thanking the CDC for its "commitment to radical transparency," a term he has adapted as a motto for his tenure atop the Health and Human Services Department.

One week after he was confirmed, a key ACIP meeting in February was postponed with no new date given.

One former ACIP member told The Hill the web page represents "nothing new."

"I heard they were going to do this. There's nothing new," said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. "This has always been available to the public."

Offit served as a member of ACIP from 1998 to 2003. Under his name, there are 8 items listed, most noting that he is the co-holder of several vaccine patents.

"When we sit down to begin a meeting, we go around the room and we declare anything that would be could be perceived as a conflict of interest," said Offit.

"I think it's just a distraction," he added, noting the current threats of measles outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico.

"I think RFK Jr. believes that the pharmaceutical industry has captured committees like the ACIP or the FDA vaccine advisory committee, for which he has no evidence. But it sells in the current climate, this notion of conspiracy, that there's dark forces working behind the scenes to do harm."