On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed eight new members to a significant advisory panel on vaccines, just days after dismissing all previous members. Among the newly appointed individuals are several prominent critics of vaccines, including Dr. Robert Malone.
The new advisors are set to join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This committee is instrumental in reviewing vaccine data and making recommendations regarding eligibility for vaccination and insurance coverage.
Recommendations from ACIP must receive approval from the CDC director before they become official health policy.
Kennedy announced via a post on social media that the newly appointed members will participate in the ACIP meeting scheduled for June 25 to 27. Previously, 17 members served on the ACIP before their termination.
The implications of this reshuffle on vaccine policy and access in the U.S. remain uncertain. Public health professionals had anticipated that Kennedy might select members reflecting his skepticism toward vaccination.
“We all knew this would happen, and it’s a national tragedy and a major threat to children’s health and lives,” remarked Lawrence Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown University, in response to the changes.
Kennedy asserted that his selections comprise “highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians,” all of whom are dedicated to evidence-based medicine and robust scientific principles.
Dr. Malone has previously suggested, without substantiation, that recent measles fatalities in children were attributable to medical errors rather than the virus itself. While he claims to have played a pivotal role in developing mRNA vaccines, he has become a prominent advocate against vaccinations.
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel, characterized some new appointees as “anti-vaccine activists.” He expressed concern that the changeover would compromise the quality of guidance provided to the public.
“I think the public is not going to be getting the same quality of advice as we had before the purge,” Offit told Finance Newso, adding that the previously appointed members had far more expertise relevant to the committee’s work.
He predicted that the shifting composition would likely result in less informed recommendations from ACIP.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the anti-vaccine views held by some of the new advisors.
The individuals selected by Kennedy include:
- Dr. Robert Malone: A physician critical of vaccines and researcher in mRNA technology.
- Dr. Joseph Hibbeln: A psychiatrist with a background in nutritional neuroscience from the National Institutes of Health.
- Dr. Martin Kulldorff: An epidemiologist and biostatistician previously dismissed from Harvard for his public statements about Covid-19.
- Retsef Levi: An operations management professor at MIT with a focus on food supply chain analytics.
- Dr. Cody Meissner: A pediatrics professor with advisory experience at both the CDC and the FDA.
- Dr. James Pagano: A board-certified emergency medicine physician with experience on various hospital committees.
- Dr. Michael Ross: A clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology involved in the CDC’s cancer prevention advisory committee.
- Vicky Pebsworth: A nurse with a doctorate in public health, previously on FDA vaccine advisory committees.
Pebsworth has been associated with The National Vaccine Information Center, an organization criticized for spreading misinformation regarding immunizations.
In addition, Levi has spoken out against mRNA vaccines, claiming they pose serious health risks, especially to younger demographics.
While acknowledging that Meissner is the most qualified among the new members, Offit noted the concerns surrounding the new committee’s overall expertise.
In a past interview, Meissner labeled measles vaccines as “very safe and highly effective,” emphasizing the importance of childhood immunizations to prevent surges in cases.
Kennedy has previously minimized the current measles outbreak in the United States and has propagated unfounded claims regarding the virus’s vaccine containing fetal cells.
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