The American Medical Association (AMA) and 79 medical societies on Wednesday reaffirmed their support for vaccinations as the best way to protect against the flu, COVID-19, and RSV and their potentially serious complications.
In an open letter, physicians from the AMA and the leading medical societies wrote that the vaccines remain among the best tools to protect the American public against these respiratory illnesses and complications.
“We come together as physicians from every corner of medicine to reaffirm our commitment to these lifesaving vaccines,” they wrote, urging insurers, hospitals, and public health agencies to ensure the vaccines remain available to patients without additional costs.
The physicians released the letter on the same day that the seven new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) were scheduled to meet for the first of a two-day meeting about recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, maternal and pediatric RSV vaccines, influenza vaccines, and thimerosal-containing influenza vaccines.
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ACIP evaluates the safety, efficacy, and clinical need of the nation’s vaccines and passes its findings on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which currently doesn’t have a director. The CDC director must approve the recommendations before they become official policy.
In an announcement, the AMA said physician leaders wanted to publish the letter ahead of the ACIP meeting and before respiratory viruses surge this fall.
The letter alluded to the recent changes to the ACIP board, which occurred abruptly this month when Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, fired all 17 members of the panel and named eight replacements, several of whom are well-known critics of vaccines and COVID-19 interventions.
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One of Kennedy’s appointees to ACIP, Michael A. Ross, M.D., a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, withdrew from the panel on Tuesday during the financial holdings review that members must participate in before they can work on the committee, Reuters reported.
On Monday, Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D., (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, called for a delay of the ACIP meeting until it is fully staffed with members who have more direct relevant expertise in microbiology, epidemiology, or immunology. Some of the new members lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines and may even have a preconceived bias against them, he said.
The physician leaders said in the letter that the medical and public health community is concerned by recent changes to federal immunization review processes.
“In this moment of uncertainty, physicians must align around clear, evidence-based guidance for patients,” they wrote. “We commit to working together to promote public understanding and confidence in the use of vaccines to avoid another severe respiratory virus season and resurgence of vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths.”