The Wall Street Journal performed a letter co-authored by Charley Hooper and Me Today (printed version tomorrow). I hesitated to quote more than one paragraph, but I think that the agreement that allows full quotation only after 30 days applies to my paid work, not my free work. So I take the opportunity and quote everything.
Noting the editorial “RFK Jr. implements vaccine purging” (June 11), HHS’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Vaccination Practices on charges of conflict of interest. He does not provide evidence of such entanglement and “settles the institute for the claim that the public must know that public science will guide recommendations from our health agencies.
However, there is evidence of this from related cases. Like ACIP, the Food and Drug Administration uses external experts from the Advisory Board. The FDA has sought to exclude its members in relation to industry. Fortunately, the impact of the Commission’s conflict has been evaluated and shown to be nonexistent.
In 2006, physician Sidney Wolf and several colleagues published an article in the American Medical Association journal that took part in 76 FDA Advisory Committee meetings that included “yes” or “no” votes for individual drugs. They found that none of the 76 outcomes were changed if voters with conflicts of interest were excluded. Furthermore, participants with conflict were more likely than participants who did not vote for drugs that were more likely to respond with “their” company products.
In other words, there is no reason to think that ACIP has such a problem before Kennedy’s purge.
David R. Henderson
Hoover Facilities
Pacific Gloves, California.
Charles L. Hooper
Objective Insights, Inc.
Grass Valley, California.
Thank you to Charley for providing the backup link to Jama Artble. I received a request from the Letter Editor to provide links and sub-screenshots to support our claim. I was about to leave with my wife to celebrate Father’s Day.
