This week’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is likely to mark its end—for now—as a vaccine advisory body.

Regardless of which party controlled the White House and who served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ACIP—a federal advisory committee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—held meetings that included presentations of vetted, evidence-based data and used a structured framework for moving from scientific evidence to vaccine recommendations.

Based on what we have learned about the new committee members appointed by the secretary, the meeting agenda and presenters, however, the purpose of the meeting appears to be an opportunity to deemphasize vaccine benefits—many of which are largely invisible to the public and taken for granted—and emphasize the potential risks of vaccines.

If that proves true, the meeting could succeed in its apparent goal of discouraging vaccination, putting more people at risk of vaccine-preventable illnesses. Concern about the legitimacy of the meeting has risen to the point that Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman US Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, tweeted that it should be postponed.