Agency overview
March 1964
- Grace M. Lee, Chair
The ACIP nominally contains fifteen regular members, each an expert in one of the following fields:[4]
No-one who is currently employed by or involved with any employees of vaccine manufacturing companies or who holds a patent for a vaccine can be a member of ACIP. In addition, the ACIP includes ex officio members from Federal agencies involved with vaccine issues, and non-voting liaison representatives from medical and professional societies and organizations.[10]
Recent recommendations[edit]
On February 26, 2015, ACIP voted to deliver a Category A recommendation for administering MenB vaccines to persons older than 10 years who were at higher risk of meningococcal disease.
On June 24, 2015, ACIP heard the arguments for recommending Pfizer and Novartis's serogroup B meningococcal vaccines for everyone in the 16-22 age group. The vaccines were licensed to be administered to persons 10 to 25 years of age. ACIP was unable to grade all of the evidence according to the GRADE system, but they considered the evidence given to be of enough quality to consider a recommendation. The proposed wording was as follows:
“A serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccine series may be administered to adolescents and young adults 16 through 23 years of age to provide short term protection against most strains of serogroup B meningococcal disease. The preferred age for MenB vaccination is 16 through 18 years of age. (Category B)”[11]
The motion was passed, 14 to 1.
In 2020 ACIP created a phased vaccine allocation recommendation for the COVID vaccines.[12][13] A preliminary version of the recommendation prioritized essential workers over people 65 or older. Online commentators criticized the panel for its decision, characterizing the panel as "saying that racial equity considerations militate against prioritizing the elderly even though they concede that doing so would save the most lives of people of all races."[14]