On Sept. 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially appointed five new members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Among them is Catherine Stein, a professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health at Case Western Reserve University.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. selects the new appointees. In June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the ACIP, all of whom were previously appointed by the Biden Administration. According to The New York Times, Kennedy claimed the ACIP “had been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest,” and said that replacing the committee would help restore public trust. After the dismissals of the board, Kennedy chose eight new doctors and researchers for the ACIP, though one stepped down soon after due to a financial conflict of interest. Then in September, the HHS reported that five members had been added, bringing the board to a total of 12.
“The ACIP safeguards the health of Americans by issuing objective, evidence-based vaccine recommendations,” Kennedy said in a statement to ABC News. “Its new members bring diverse expertise that strengthens the committee and ensures it fulfills its mission with transparency, independence and gold-standard science. Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda. The public must know that unbiased science, evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest, guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”
Stein is an epidemiologist who researches tuberculosis and infectious diseases. She has been teaching
epidemiology-related courses for several years at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
“Every epidemiologist wants their work to have a meaningful impact on society,” Stein remarked when interviewed. “I have a passion for digging into data, especially epidemiologic data, and making recommendations based on data. I believe this appointment reflects my professional reputation and an opportunity to make policy recommendations based on that reputation.”
According to The New York Times, Stein has previously expressed concern about vaccines. In an article published by Brownstone Journal in 2022, she “[called] for an end to vaccine mandates at universities.” In 2021, she and the Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, an anti-vaccine group, showed support for proposals allowing legislators to block public health orders, as reported by Ohio Capital Journal.
“Some people don’t have a solid understanding of what vaccines do, [such as] what they actually
prevent and [the fact] that they are not 100 percent effective,” Stein said. “As with any medical intervention, there is an incomplete understanding of unintended side effects. [As we did] in the first meeting of the full panel, the ACIP board will consider these things using all available data. Hopefully these things will be communicated clearly to the public, since one goal is shared-decision making.”
As part of the ACIP, Stein will be responsible for developing vaccine recommendations to control diseases in the United States, considering the safety of the vaccine and the overall effectiveness when given at specific ages and in regard to the severity of the diseases. Her current priority is learning processes and how things are done within the ACIP.
“As an epidemiologist, I understand a lot about infectious disease transmission, individual risk
factors and incidence, prevalence and mortality,” Stein said. “While tuberculosis has been my main focus, I have [also] done collaborative work in other infectious diseases. All of this shapes my approach [to vaccine policy decisions] in two ways. First, core concepts in epidemiology are common across infectious diseases, even if there [are] specific aspects that differ across various infectious diseases. Second, epidemiology as science looks at population risk and disease burden. Vaccines affect individual risk, population risk and disease burden.”
She will attend at least three meetings a year at the CDC to review findings and discuss vaccine research, clinical trial research and labeling information. One of these meetings was held on Sept. 18 and 19 during which the ACIP had the opportunity to vote on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines for children and newborns. However, the meeting concluded without a vote on whether COVID-19 vaccines should be covered by the Vaccines for Children program, and the panel postponed the decision regarding hepatitis B vaccination for newborns to allow for further discussion, according to the Nature Portfolio.
At the beginning of the meeting, Committee Chairman Martin Kulldorf addressed concerns about the group’s perceived anti-vaccine stance.
“The members of this ACIP Committee are committed to reassuring the public and restoring public confidence by removing unnecessary risks and harms whenever possible,” Kulldorff said, according to PBS News.
For Stein, this role offers her an opportunity to contribute her expertise as the committee helps guide national vaccine policy under new leadership. ACIP’s future deliberations will determine how its new membership influences vaccine recommendations and public health decisions in the months ahead.
When asked about what would make her time on a committee a success, Stein replied, “[to be able to make] data-driven decisions and respect informed consent.”