It has been an awful few days in the public health/child health/child vaccination world. Last week, ACIP (the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) met to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule for the US. ACIP is a CDC committee that has historically been composed of seasoned, vetted scientists whose sole goal is to ensure the safety of vaccine-preventable diseases in the USA. Last week, the new ACIP committee was the opposite of that. Our gal-pal, YLE, said it was “Disgraceful. Unprepared. Dysfunctional. Incompetent. Terrifying. Embarrassing. Opaque.”
I couldn’t agree more.
It felt like a bad movie. But it wasn’t. It was reality. I was surprised by how emotional I became on Sunday about all of this. After thinking through the ‘why’ of ‘why I was crying’, I’m sure it’s the culmination of an awful 2025 because of reckless decisions by the administration. But, I think it was more than that this time. Over the past few months, it has been a systematic, targeted, and strategic (albeit dysfunctional and irresponsible) take-down of my field of science. Or science in general. Or health equity. Or the pursuit of truth.
Perhaps all of the above. And, the ACIP meeting last week is an extension of a reality that is being played out in real-time that continues the dismantling in multiplicative forms.
Here’s what the American Academy of Pediatrics said about the meeting along with 40 other leading medical, health, and patient advocacy groups (you can read the full statement here):
The other leading organizations included:
American Academy of Pediatrics, Academic Pediatric Association, Alliance for Aging Research, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Nurse Midwives, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American Families for Vaccines, American Medical Association, American Medical Group Association (AMGA), American Pediatric Society, American Pharmacists Association, American Public Health Association, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), American Society for Meningitis Prevention, America’s Physician Groups, Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Caregiver Action Network, Children with Diabetes, Emily Stillman Foundation, END SEPSIS, Families Fighting Flu, Families USA, Generations United, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, Gerontological Society of America, Global Healthy Living Foundation, Global Liver Institute, HealthHIV, Hepatitis B Foundation, Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Infectious Diseases Society of America, International Vaccine Access Center, Kimberly Coffey Foundation, March of Dimes, National Association of Hispanic Nurses, National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services (NANASP), National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Coalition for Infant Health, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, National Grange, National Hispanic Health Foundation, National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), National Public Health Coalition, National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR), North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, Nurses Who Vaccinate, Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Pediatric Policy Council, Public Health Foundation, Sepsis Alliance, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Society for Pediatric Research, Teens for Vaccines Inc., The J.A.M.I.E. Group, Trusted Messenger Program, Vaccinate Your Family, Vaccine Integrity Project.
Please don’t skim over that last paragraph- go read it again. It’s leading organizations after leading health groups after patient advocacy groups saying a collective ‘No’ to the ACIP recommendations. March of Dimes, American Academy of Physicians, Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology…It’s like the Avengers of science professional groups.
It’s stunning and should be a wake up call that our most trusted groups in the USA are banding together to say ‘enough’.
A group of us have joined forces through The Evidence Collective and watched the ACIP meetings together for the one purpose of helping distill what was happening. After counting at least 60 falsehoods, we couldn’t keep up. It was a firehose of conspiracies, and it didn’t stop. I want to give you the final TEC debunk/fact-check report, and feel free to share widely. Things are about to get confusing for pediatricians, pharmacists, doctors, and families - and, we get that! So, we hope it’s helpful to sift through the falsehoods and implications.
For those of you at the CDC, NIH, HHS, public health departments, and others working for the common good, can we also encourage you for a minute? You’ll notice there are others on this post (and hundreds of others) that want to say we are with you. The courage we are called into right now is different than what many of us have had to navigate before, and that most of us were not trained to handle.
But, I can just tell you that it’s in you. After everything that happened to me personally during COVID (which is what happened to lots of other public health folks), I am now convinced of a few things.
One of those is that there is courage inside all of us that we don’t know is there until we are asked to step into it. But, it is there. Strength and courage are there. Sure, fear and doubt and tears are too. But, courage is stronger. So, is love, equity, and one more (the most important?) thing.
Neighboring.
So, if you find yourself today downtrodden and discouraged, remember that a group of neighbors in this world is standing up for truth, equity, and science and surrounding you. I bet you’ll find yourself buoyed by hope and courage in that community of neighbors. I also bet you’ll find yourself standing up to your full height in that courage. That’s what courage and neighboring did for me. Fear and frustration are loud and strong, yes. But, I just know that courage and neighboring are stronger. Hold onto that hope, friends. Neighboring together does that to us, and we wish you hope and courage this week.
Let’s stand up to our full heights together.
-Emily and neighbors
Here’s the final ACIP TEC debunk/fact-check report again, and feel free to share widely.
PS: If you need a group of trusted scientists and doctors, subscribe to the substacks of the other co-authors on this post!
Dr. Katelyn Jetelina (Your Local Epidemiologist)
Thank you. I’ve already shared this to my social media and hope all your other followers will do the same.
Thanks for this, Emily. It is difficult to imagine anyone in the public health community who is not dumbfounded by the actions of these incompetent, ignorant, ideologically driven imposters. For epidemiologists, to be confounded usually means something quite different from the way we felt confounded by the operations of this & other reformulated committees. I am thankful for the stalwart public health professionals who are standing firm reasoned judgement based on solid evidence.