STAT Q&A with Helen Chu on the termination of ACIP members and future vaccine policy. Helen Chu went through a multi-year process to finally gain a seat on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccines experts panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. There was a lengthy application process, and extensive conflict-of-interest vetting, followed by training about how the committee conducts its operations.
Chu, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Washington, was appointed last year to a four-year term on the committee. She participated in one meeting as a voting member. And then she and the rest of her colleagues on the ACIP were summarily terminated on Monday, in a move health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an avowed vaccine skeptic and long-time ACIP critic — insisted was necessary to restore public confidence in vaccines.
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