AMA Joins VIP On Vaccine Review Alternative To ACIP

The American Medical Association will collaborate with the Vaccine Integrity Project on an independent, evidence-based review process for vaccines against influenza, COVID-and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), furthering VIP’s goal of providing an alternative vaccine resource as health professionals lose faith in CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices following its overhaul by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“The goal of this work is to ensure a deliberative, evidence-driven approach to produce the data necessary to understand the risks and benefits of vaccine policy decisions for all populations -- the approach traditionally used by the federal government,” AMA and VIP said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 10).

The reviews could serve as an alternative basis for vaccine policies for the many states separating their recommendations from ACIP and the federal government under Kennedy’s leadership, though VIP won’t make recommendations itself.

The process will build on the evidence review completed by VIP, based at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), ahead of the 2025-26 season. AMA will work with medical professional societies and public health organizations to define a set of policy questions for the process.

The review will include many of the elements traditionally used in the ACIP review process, which VIP and AMA said has now “effectively collapsed.” The organizations will convene ongoing expert panels and monthly scientific meetings, conduct systematic literature reviews and comparative analyses, and offer data transparency, including a public protocol.

Following the definition of policy questions, VIP will begin assembling evidence briefs for influenza, COVID-19 and RSV vaccines, which will be provided to medical societies to help develop immunization guidance for their specific patient populations.

“As appropriate, societies will supplement the shared evidence base with population-specific data, such as guidance for pregnant women, children, older adults, immunocompromised individuals, and otherwise healthy adults,” VIP and AMA wrote.

The work is set to be funded by VIP’s donors and participants in the review process will disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

“Respiratory viruses hospitalize and kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and vaccine decisions must be guided by facts, not politics or ideology,” CIDRAP Director Michael Osterholm said Tuesday. “Our goal is to build on our efforts to restore peace of mind for clinicians and patients by ensuring that experts are continuously evaluating vaccine safety and effectiveness using transparent, evidence-based methods.”

VIP has conducted independent reviews of other vaccines since Kennedy’s termination of the previous members of ACIP and is currently conducting a review of the human papillomavirus vaccine.

During a press call hosted by Protect Our Care Tuesday, public health stakeholders pointed to Kennedy’s dismantling of ACIP as one of the major harms of his first year as HHS secretary.

Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA), a pediatrician, said the new members of ACIP are taking U.S. vaccine policy down a “dangerous route.”

“They're already making reckless changes to our nation's vaccination policy. And so now, as a pediatrician, I am worried that children will be growing up in a world that is more dangerous, that children will suffer from preventable illnesses and that they will die preventable deaths,” Schrier said. “I've treated patients with measles and with meningitis and with pertussis. And let me tell you, these are terrible, life-threatening illnesses, and we should be so grateful that they have become rare.”

Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the review by AMA and VIP is necessary because the federal government has “abdicated” its scientific work on vaccines. “This is a testament to the problems we’ve had over the last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Kennedy-appointed members of ACIP have continued to expand their focus to include skeptical looks at the safety of additional vaccines. Robert Malone, the vice chair of the panel and a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has claimed FDA has undisclosed data on pediatric deaths associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

“I am trying to force FDA to come clean on that,” he told the New York Times this week.

FDA did not respond to an inquiry about Malone’s statement.

ACIP has also launched a new work group to reexamine HPV vaccines.