[HN Gopher] RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
___________________________________________________________________
RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
Author : doener
Score : 141 points
Date : 2025-06-09 21:35 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (apnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apnews.com)
| dacox wrote:
| Was this a new committee? there is a quote about this being a
| coup, but it is also noted that the previous administration
| selected the entire existing committee
| m-watson wrote:
| From the way it is written it feels more like "Under Biden
| enough openings occurred that he selected the entire existing
| committee," where as under Trump they are being pushed out
| ""Without removing the current members, the current Trump
| administration would not have been able to appoint a majority
| of new members until 2028," Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street
| Journal opinion piece. "A clean sweep is needed to re-establish
| public confidence in vaccine science. ""
| dacox wrote:
| yeah, I see that.
|
| Apparently ACIP is very much not new. I am curious to the
| specifics of the prevous mass appointment, however.
| miltonlost wrote:
| What are you curious about? What does that curiousity have
| to do with the current mass firings? Are you just asking
| questions to smokescreen for this executive power grab?
| vkou wrote:
| A clean sweep of RFK and his ilk out of power and the media
| is the bare minimum of what is necessary to re-establish
| public confidence in vaccine science.
|
| That trust was undermined by habitual liars in an effort to
| score political points at the expense of public health. None
| of the batshit insane things they claimed were just around
| the corner have actually materialized.
| bjourne wrote:
| If one goes by the ACIP Membership Rooster this seem to be
| the case: https://www.cdc.gov/acip/membership/roster.html
| Likely, the compensation scientists receive for being a
| committee member is not great so the committee has to be
| constantly refilled. Appointees to such committees are de
| facto apolitical because there aren't enough world-class
| specialists available for the executive to choose between. So
| the Trump team will have to choose, actual experts in
| immunology or loyal MAGA goons...
| josu wrote:
| "Although it's typically not viewed as a partisan board, the
| Biden administration had installed the entire committee."
| mudetroit wrote:
| They typically serve four year terms. When any president begins
| their term the entire board will have been appointed by the
| previous administration. Now if games were played to make most
| of the terms expire at the end of the term that's also not okay
| under any means.
| Qem wrote:
| > Now if games were played to make most of the terms expire
| at the end of the term that's also not okay under any means.
|
| I think terms in boards like this should be filled under a
| different periodicity from the presidential term,
| preferentially with a period coprime to it, just like the
| cicadas do. This way it would be harder to pull the trick of
| letting them sync.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44229533
| lbrito wrote:
| Flagged by the anti-rationality brigade.
| gregwebs wrote:
| There is a conflict of interest lookup that you can view for
| yourself of declared conflicts of interest. [1]
|
| However the main issue here is that the Biden administration made
| 12 appointments right before leaving office to try to make it
| impossible for the Trump administration to make new appointments.
| [2] This is not the way that a democracy is supposed to function:
| with the voted out president trying to thwart the incoming
| president.
|
| [1] https://www.cdc.gov/acip/disclosures/by-member.html
|
| [2] https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/31/vaccine-policy-acip-
| memb...
| durkie wrote:
| From the way you described it, it sounds like there were
| openings and Biden appointed folks to fill those openings.
|
| How is this different from any president filling any vacancy?
| By nature of the vacancy being filled, a future president won't
| be able to fill it.
| wat10000 wrote:
| And if they can be removed at will, as link 2 says, why does
| it matter?
| timewizard wrote:
| Is it usual for 12 spots to be open simultaneously?
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| > This is not the way that a democracy is supposed to function:
| with the voted out president trying to thwart the incoming
| president.
|
| Wild that you can unironically say that Biden appointing
| committee members is undemocratic..
|
| I can only imagine what you'll say when you hear about what
| Trump did when he lost the 2020 election. You will be most
| upset when you learn about that I suspect.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| How about John Adams?
| timewizard wrote:
| So two wrongs can make a right?
| xnx wrote:
| > This is not the way that a democracy is supposed to function:
| with the voted out president trying to thwart the incoming
| president.
|
| Correct. The senate majority leader is supposed to thwart the
| _current_ president. /s
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_...
| curiousgal wrote:
| [delayed]
| sys13 wrote:
| This is a step back for science in the service of public health -
| I'm sad for the many children that will die needless deaths
| normalaccess wrote:
| We will see, If he is right health will improve. I am apt to
| believe him.
| _elf wrote:
| Everyone in the VC community who helped elect President Trump is
| partially responsible for each child that suffers and dies from a
| vaccine-preventable disease due to this action.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| You need to frame this in terms of quantifiable material loss
| to them in order for there to be a chance that they'd care.
| lbrito wrote:
| That won't help much because the quantifiable material loss
| in that scenario wouldn't be much.
| basisword wrote:
| As long as they're making money they do not care.
| bigfatkitten wrote:
| You don't become a VC by being the sort of person who cares
| about these things.
| vrosas wrote:
| VC: "I pretended to be a good person because that's what I
| thought would make me successful and people love me."
|
| Everyone: "we can tell you're an entitled dbag."
|
| VC: "well now I'm going to act like an entitled dbag and it's
| your fault."
|
| - Me paraphrasing his actual interview. You know who I'm
| talking a lot.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-06-09 23:01 UTC)