'puppets On A String': Acip Chair Airs Independence Concerns

The newly appointed chair of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel privately expressed concerns about the committee’s independence, according to a transcript of remarks obtained by POLITICO.

Kirk Milhoan, who was named the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ chair earlier this week, said Friday he felt like committee members were “puppets on a string” rather than independent advisers.

An HHS spokesperson and Milhoan both told POLITICO that his comment was not in reference to the administration and was instead referring to other pressures.

The remarks — directed to ACIP member Cody Meissner — came during a lunch break in the committee’s two-day meeting at which members voted to end the universal birth dose recommendation for hepatitis B vaccines. They were overheard on the sound feed used by medical associations, industry representatives and health care providers attending the meeting.

In a text to POLITICO, Milhoan said he was “not referring to the administration” but talking about federal, industry and medical organizations that are “trying to influence by ad hominem attacks, when we are trying to look at and ask for data.”

“He was referring to the treatment of the committee by the liaison representatives who continuously attacked the committee the last two days,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said of Milhoan.

POLITICO was not able to obtain an audio recording of Milhoan's comments, but two sources who were on the call and weren’t authorized to comment publicly confirmed Milhoan’s “puppet” remark.

Milhoan also lamented the workload involved with serving on the committee and said he wished the panel had more time to deliberate.

Milhoan is a pediatric cardiologist and former Air Force flight surgeon who became chair of the influential panel on Monday after former chair Martin Kulldorf, a former Harvard biostatistician, left for a senior role within HHS. He was traveling during the meeting and appeared virtually. Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth, also appeared virtually.

Milhoan said he decided to join ACIP in part to restore public trust in vaccines that’s declined since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the transcript and the sources.

The comments came directly after the panel voted to stop recommending that all newborns get vaccinated against hepatitis B, a priority of vaccine skeptics. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself strongly suggested he saw the birth dose as unnecessary before becoming health secretary.