New ACIP members named as long-awaited vaccine meeting nears

Isabella Cueto covers the leading causes of death and disability: chronic diseases. Her focus includes autoimmune conditions and diseases of the lungs, kidneys, liver (and more). She writes about intriguing research, the promises and pitfalls of treatment, and what can be done about the burden of disease. You can reach Isabella on Signal at isabellacueto.03.

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials announced the appointment of five new members to a panel of vaccine advisers handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, just days ahead of the group’s next meeting. They include an infectious disease expert who has pushed back on Covid-19 mandates and another who advocated for alternative, unproven treatments for Covid, including ivermectin. 

STAT previously reported that the appointees were under consideration. Now, with their appointments, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is up to 12 members, a few short of the panel Kennedy dismissed in June, saying the move was necessary to restore trust in vaccines. 

ACIP is scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday in Atlanta to consider and vote on recommendations related to Covid-19 vaccines and shots on the pediatric vaccine schedule, including hepatitis B vaccines. 

Kennedy had appointed the first batch of new members prior to the group’s meeting in June. That meeting cemented the reintroduction of decades-old anti-vaccine talking points in national policy, as the group recommended that preservative thimerosal be removed from vaccines and pledged to review long-approved vaccines on the childhood immunization schedule. 

The CDC director is typically responsible for approving recommendations or not, which may mean the responsibility will fall to the CDC’s acting director, Jim O’Neill. O’Neill stepped into the role after Kennedy ousted former director Susan Monarez over vaccine policy disputes. 

The new members are:

• Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Texas. According to the HHS press release, he “holds a Ph.D. in the mechanisms of myocardial inflammation.” His bio on the website of the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formed in 2020 that has advocated for Covid treatments at odds with the medical mainstream, states he is dedicated to treating patients with “vaccine-related cardiovascular toxicity due to the spike protein.” He has authored two papers on Covid vaccines, including one that claimed the mRNA vaccines led to more cases of the heart condition myocarditis than the virus itself, and called for the shots to be pulled from the market. While the vaccines did lead to some cases of the condition, regulators around the world consider them to be safe and effective. 
• Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist and director of medication access and affordability at the Catholic health system Ascension. She previously founded and ran a consulting company for pharmacists and spent more than a decade with Dispensary of Hope, which sources medications that can be redistributed to low-income patients. 
• Evelyn Griffin, a Polish-born physician based in Baton Rouge, La. Her most recent venture appears to be an annual “health and wellness fair” called All Things Wellness. Griffin previously worked as an OB-GYN at Ochsner Health before transitioning to lifestyle and root-cause medicine, according to her online bios. According to HHS, “she was among the first robotic-assisted gynecologic surgeons in the U.S. and has led efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.” She has promoted functional and naturopathic medicine, and publicly supported abortion restrictions in her home state.  
• Raymond Pollak, a physician in Illinois, who is also licensed to practice in Florida. Pollak was a whistleblower in a suit against the University of Illinois Hospital alleging that the hospital admitted patients for liver transplants when they were not medically necessary. The university paid a fine to resolve the case in 2003. According to HHS, he’s published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and been a principal investigator on National Institutes of Health transplant biology grants and numerous drug trials. 
• Catherine Stein, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She is a Ph.D. scientist whose research focuses on tuberculosis, including genetic and environmental susceptibility, the genomics of resistance, and genetic variation in disease severity. According to HHS, she has published 115 peer-reviewed articles. She may be better known in Ohio for her testimony before state legislative committees opposing Covid vaccine mandates. Stein submitted remarks at a meeting early in the pandemic considering whether to make public Covid data on testing, cases, and deaths. A year later she supported a bill that would prohibit vaccine mandates.