Federal officials are unsure how to respond to a court order blocking a key vaccine advisory committee, following “miscommunication” over next steps by an advisory committee member and Trump administration official.
Robert Malone, an outspoken member of the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, said Friday the panel is essentially sidelined, after initially saying it had disbanded because an appeal of the earlier court ruling would take too long.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices’ controversial changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and called into question the panel’s validity.
As it stands, it’s not clear whether the Trump administration plans to appeal that ruling, entirely reform the panel or find some other way to comply with the court’s decision.
Malone said following the ruling he received a call from advisory committee chair Kirk Milhoan and was told the committee was disbanded after Milhoan had heard from acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya.
Malone posted on X Thursday that the government’s response to the lawsuit and injunction is to disband and then recreate a new committee. But Malone on Friday said Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon accused Malone of spreading mistruths over whether an appeal of U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s injunction was still possible.
Malone, an adjunct professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, called the disagreement a miscommunication and put a statement on X saying as much. But he also had harsh words for how it was handled.
“Well, Andrew’s full of shit. OK, I’m sorry. He’s wrong,” Malone said in a phone interview Friday. “Kirk [Milhoan] does not lie. Kirk is a pastor. He is a straight arrow.”
HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Malone on Friday said he spoke with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who confirmed that no decision has been made while saying that disbanding the committee is still on the list of options. Kennedy told him the administration feels it could win on appeal, but it would face a hostile appellate court and a tight Supreme Court docket, Malone said.
In the meantime the controversial panel cannot meet, and all of its prior decisions are considered voided.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said on Friday that he’d like to see the CDC vaccine advisory go back to its original membership, before Kennedy overhauled it last year.
Cassidy said the Senate is attempting to do oversight, “but obviously the next CDC director will have a role.”
The Trump administration faces a March 25 deadline to nominate a new director or vacate the role of acting director that Bhattacharya is filling.
Meanwhile, the vaccine advisory had already lost some influence. According to data from KFF, 29 states and the District of Columbia said they will not adhere to the federal vaccine recommendations and instead will continue with the Biden administration’s vaccine schedule.
