Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Inside Health Policy, in “Experts See Potential for RFK Jr. to Make Major Changes to ACIP,” by Jessica Karins. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Richard Hughes, a health policy lawyer at the firm Epstein, Becker & Green, said most of the authority ACIP has comes from the HHS secretary. The committee has a charter, as is required under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, but Hughes said many of its practices come down to longstanding norms.
Hughes said Kennedy has a lot of power to make changes to ACIP, but the changes could be challenged legally. It's unclear whether Kennedy would have the ability to disband the committee entirely, he added, because ACIP is mentioned in the statutes authorizing the Vaccines for Children Program and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, among others.
"It's an interesting situation, because you have a discretionary committee that is just repeatedly referenced by Congress," Hughes said. …
"A lot of people are speculating as to whether (Kennedy) would hold to that promise," Hughes said referring to Kennedy's ACIP commitments. "What we've seen so far is a focus on conflicts of interest, he's put up this database now purporting to list conflicts of interest for the committee. A lot of people are wondering if he'll reconstitute membership of the committee."
