Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting Sparks Controversy Over Childhood Vaccination Schedule

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting continued into its second day with a contentious discussion on childhood vaccination schedules, drawing sharp criticism from medical experts regarding both the presenters and content.

ACIP, which makes vaccination recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found itself at the center of controversy when attorney Aaron Siri took the podium to discuss childhood vaccines. Siri, who has worked with current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine-related litigation, presented arguments questioning vaccine safety studies and approval processes.

His participation drew immediate backlash, including from Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who wrote on social media: “Aaron Siri is a trial attorney who makes his living suing vaccine manufacturers. He is presenting as if an expert on childhood vaccines. The ACIP is totally discredited. They are not protecting children.”

During his presentation, Siri claimed there was insufficient placebo-controlled safety testing for vaccines, characterized most studies as “underpowered,” and criticized the short timeframe between vaccine licensure and recommendation. He also targeted the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which provides liability protection for vaccine manufacturers, suggesting it reduced oversight.

When questioned why Siri was invited to speak, ACIP Executive Secretary Mina Zadeh noted that prominent vaccine experts Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Paul Offit had declined invitations to participate, though she didn’t explain Siri’s selection criteria.

Dr. H. Cody Meissner, retired chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center, delivered a forceful rebuttal, calling Siri’s presentation “a terrible, terrible distortion of all the facts.” Meissner highlighted that high vaccine uptake has led to historically low infectious disease rates in the United States.

“Remember, there are tens of thousands of vaccines that are administered every day, and just because there’s an adverse event that occurs around the time of vaccine administration, it doesn’t mean there is any causal association,” Meissner emphasized.

Financial conflicts arose during the exchange when Meissner suggested Siri profits substantially from his legal work. Though Siri denied this characterization, KFF Health News has reported that the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network paid Siri’s firm $6 million in 2023.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado of Stanford University criticized the committee’s decision to platform Siri, telling reporters, “The fact that you have an attorney who sues people for money for a living talking about how bad vaccines are is pretty amazing.” She characterized his presentation as containing “misinformation, disinformation, and information taken out of context.”

The meeting continued with Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, recently appointed acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, comparing U.S. and Danish vaccination schedules. Hoeg suggested both countries have similar hepatitis B rates despite Denmark not recommending the birth dose vaccine, and advocated for what she described as Denmark’s more transparent approach to public health.

Maldonado pushed back on these comparisons, noting the fundamental differences between the countries’ healthcare systems. “We’re not comparing apples to oranges, we’re comparing kumquats to melons,” she said, pointing out that Denmark’s unified healthcare system for 6 million people offers comprehensive cradle-to-grave tracking that doesn’t exist in the U.S.

The afternoon session also included discussions about aluminum adjuvants in vaccines, with some committee members suggesting a working group to investigate potential safety concerns. Adjuvants are compounds used in some vaccines to improve immune response, with aluminum salts being the only adjuvants licensed in the United States.

Dr. Meissner again countered these concerns, reminding colleagues that extensive studies have found no association between vaccines and autism. Maldonado referenced a paper she recently co-authored in Pediatrics that reviewed 800 studies on the topic, noting that “aluminum is the third most common element on the planet” and that vaccine concentrations are far lower than those in everyday food and drinks.

Dr. Paul Offit, who declined to present at the meeting, later characterized the proceedings as “a sad day for America’s children,” describing the committee as “clearly poorly informed” and lacking key facts necessary for making national health recommendations.

The reconstituted ACIP, which saw all previous members dismissed when Secretary Kennedy took office in June, did not hold any votes on vaccination schedules during this session.