(The Epoch Times)—In his department’s latest move related to vaccine-related reform, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Aug. 1 announced more repeals of federal policy that rewarded hospitals for reporting staff vaccination rates.
Kennedy said in a press release that the policy was coercive and denied informed consent.
“Medical decisions should be made based on one thing: the wellbeing of the person—never on a financial bonus or a government mandate,” Kennedy said. “Doctors deserve the freedom to use their training, follow the science, and speak the truth without fear of punishment.”
Created under the Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inpatient payment rule, the policy linked hospital reimbursement to staff vaccination reporting.
“Doctors and other providers should have the same autonomy to choose what’s right for their own individual health care needs as the patients for whom they care. Today’s announcement helps put that power back in their hands,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in the press release.
The move represents the most recent policy repeal under CMS. These moves are “part of a broader HHS effort to restore medical autonomy in federally funded programs and root out financial and regulatory pressures that incentivize physicians towards pre-scripted medical decisions rather than individualized, evidence-based care,” according to the press release.
Since taking office as HHS secretary, Kennedy has implemented multiple changes regarding vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration in late May said it planned to limit access to future COVID vaccines to people 65 and older and individuals with underlying health conditions.
The agency also announced it would permit vaccine manufacturers to coordinate in-depth studies to assess the efficacy and safety of COVID vaccines in children and younger, healthy adults.
In recent months, HHS has also dismissed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel, ended the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children, and ordered the removal of mercury from influenza vaccines.
After it voted to advise officials to stop recommending influenza shots that have mercury, the remade Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said it plans to look at multiple other vaccines.
Martin Kulldorff, the new chair of ACIP, said on June 26 that one proposal is to notify the CDC that young children should not receive the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) combination immunization.
The agency instead would recommend that children under the age of 47 months get two separate vaccines: the measles, mumps, rubella shot, and the varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine.
Kulldorff noted that the change would reflect data that indicate the MMRV combination vaccine causes more febrile seizures. The CDC reported the same information in a background paper dated June 25.
A vote on the issue could happen as early as the next ACIP meeting, which is expected to be held in August or September.
Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement that “re-examining the childhood vaccine schedule and the use of thimerosal are both politically motivated actions that are not based on science.”
“Raising questions without adequate data casts doubt on vaccination, which can further drive down confidence in vaccines. More than any other medications, vaccines are extensively and constantly reviewed and evaluated,” she added.
During the ACIP meeting, Kulldorff explained that Kennedy had given the committee “a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine for making vaccine recommendations.”
“Vaccines are not all good or bad. If you think that all vaccines are safe and effective and want them all, or if you think that all vaccines are dangerous and don’t want any of them, then you don’t have much use for us—you already know what you want,” he said.
“But if you wish to know which vaccines are suitable for you and your children and at what ages, then we will provide you with evidence-based recommendations,” he added.
ACIP members who were removed by Kennedy said the panel has “lost credibility.” The former members wrote in a July 30 New England Journal of Medicine commentary that the process for recommending vaccines is “rapidly eroding.”
On Aug. 1, the CDC notified some outside groups that they can no longer participate in panels that review vaccine data and form recommendations for the ACIP.
The panels meet behind closed doors and typically include members of the ACIP, which advises the CDC on vaccines. The workgroups are also composed of experts from liaison organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Groups that employ the experts have been informed that they won’t be part of the workgroups any longer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 1.
An official said some groups are being removed from the workgroups because of concerns that they have conflicts of interest.
For instance, the American Pharmacists Association lists vaccine manufacturers such as GlaxoSmithKline and Moderna among its corporate supporters.
“Under the old ACIP, outside pressure to align with vaccine orthodoxy limited asking the hard questions. The old ACIP members were plagued by conflicts of interest, influence, and bias. We are fulfilling our promise to the American people to never again allow those conflicts to taint vaccine recommendations,” Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the HHS, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Last month, six medical organizations—including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM)—and a pregnant woman filed a lawsuit against HHS and Kennedy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that they intentionally removed vaccines and unjustly removed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s entire vaccine advisory panel.
The legal action seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to stop Kennedy’s new COVID vaccine recommendations and a declaratory judgment declaring the decision unlawful.
Jack Phillips and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
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