Four members of the 17-person expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination policy have been informed that their status as special government employees has been terminated — a development that throws into question their ability to continue to work on the body, STAT has learned.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has been in the crosshairs of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently preempted the group’s plan to revise guidance on use of Covid-19 vaccines at its next scheduled meeting in late June by issuing his own recommendations — which was unprecedented.
It is not clear whether the terminations are the result of political machinations, or of a bureaucratic slip-up due to cuts to the number of staff in the offices that handle the issuance of special government employee contracts. Though members of ACIP are appointed to four-year terms, their SGE contracts must be renewed annually. In the past, those renewals were routine affairs, people familiar with the process said.
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