Kennedy guts CDC's vaccine panel

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The 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee are being removed from their posts, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday afternoon.

Kennedy announced the change in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the “committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

Such a claim is "deeply insulting to the many scientists who contribute countless hours to the process," said Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We are, in fact, a model for the rest of the world."

"This is manufactured chaos," O'Leary said.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known more commonly as ACIP, consists of medical and public health experts — including pediatricians, epidemiologists and geriatricians — who make recommendations to the CDC about who should get certain vaccines, including the schedule for childhood vaccinations. Several times a year the committee holds public meetings where data is presented and reviewed.

The committee reports the data to the CDC director, who then reviews the recommendations and can choose whether to adopt them. The CDC director isn't required to do so, but usually goes along with the ACIP recommendations.

Members of ACIP, who undergo an extensive vetting process before being appointed, are required to disclose conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from voting on vaccines for which a conflict exists. The CDC released a database in March of some members’ previous work on clinical trials or vaccine research funded by drug companies, but much of the information was already public. Many public health experts argue that past associations with the pharmaceutical industry is relevant and valuable expertise for ACIP members, as long as conflicts are disclosed.

“To claim that you are doing this to restore faith in CDC is a special form of gaslighting,” said a CDC employee, referring to Kennedy's comments. The employee did not want to speak on the record for fear of retribution.

Dismantling the committee is among Kennedy’s most aggressive actions so far to reshape U.S. vaccine policy.

Kennedy’s decision to fire ACIP members “should erase any remaining doubt that he intends to impose his personal anti-vaccine agenda on the American people,” Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the CDC and current president of the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a statement. He added that Monday’s action will “make it far more difficult for pediatricians and other providers to care for their patients,” since they rely on ACIP’s guidance to make their own vaccine recommendations

In his editorial, Kennedy called for a “clean sweep” of the ACIP, but did not say who he planned to appoint to the now-vacant positions or provide a timeline for filling the roles. HHS said in a press release that ACIP will convene its next meeting from June 25 to June 27.

“What I think Kennedy is doing here is attempting to replace career civil servants with scientific expertise with those who may be more amenable to his and the Trump administration’s agenda,” said Matt Motta, an assistant professor of health law and policy at Boston University’s School of Public Health.

Motta said firing ACIP members is “an unequivocally clear attempt to break the promise” that Kennedy made during his confirmation hearings to not limit vaccine access. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said in February that Kennedy had promised to maintain the ACIP “without changes.”

Kennedy's shake up of the vaccine committee comes as the U.S. is experiencing a rise in vaccine-preventable outbreaks, including measles and whooping cough. Since last fall, 241 mostly unvaccinated children have died of flu-related illnesses, the highest number for a non-pandemic season since 2004.

Members of the ACIP are appointed to four-year terms, and many were slated to serve on the committee for another three years. Kennedy wrote Monday that “without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028.”

The move further degrades the federal government as a trusted source on vaccines and could force consumers, doctors and insurers to look elsewhere for expert guidance on vaccines, according to one ACIP member.

“The clear implication is that CDC will no longer be credible in the space of vaccination,” said the ACIP member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their employer does not allow them to speak to the media. “Insurers and other funding agencies will have to turn to the professional associations for recommendations about vaccines.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday he's naming eight new advisers to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine recommendations committee, after firing the committee's entire previous roster of 17 advisers.

"All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations," Kennedy said Wednesday in a post on X.

Kennedy's picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary's approval.

The panel's influential recommendations are closely watched because they are directly tied to federal policies, like which vaccines insurers are required to cover.

The picks announced by Kennedy include some close allies of the secretary and his inner circle. Several have a history of criticizing vaccine recommendations or questioning their safety.

"The speed with which these members were selected, and the lack of transparency in the process, does not help to restore public confidence and trust, and contributes to confusion and uncertainty," Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said in a statement.

Here is a look at those named:

Dr. Robert Malone
One of the Kennedy allies named to the committee, Dr. Robert Malone, worked on early research related to mRNA vaccine technology but was accused during the COVID-19 pandemic of spreading misinformation about the mRNA vaccines. He was with Kennedy and President Trump at the Trump election night celebration in Florida.

"On the basis of data from all over the world, approximately three years ago it was my impression that the risk/benefit ratio of these products did not merit continued use in any cohort," Malone posted last month on his Substack about the mRNA COVID vaccines.

Like Kennedy, Malone has questioned the benefits of measles vaccines during the recent record outbreak in Texas, which killed two children, and he has promoted unproven treatments for the virus.

Dr. Martin Kulldorff
Another member picked by Kennedy is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who co-authored the pandemic-era Great Barrington Declaration criticizing COVID-19 restrictions, along with now-NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya has described Kulldorff as a close friend.

Kulldorff previously worked with the CDC's outside vaccine advisers, before authoring an opinion piece in 2021 criticizing the agency's decision to pause use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine over safety concerns.

He claimed he was fired from working with the committee over the opinion piece. Kulldorff later claimed he was fired from Harvard University for criticizing COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

Dr. Cody Meissner
Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrics professor who previously served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration's own vaccines panel — the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee — was also named to the committee.

Meissner opposed COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children. He also co-authored an opinion piece with now-FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary speaking out against masking of children during the pandemic.

Vicky Pebsworth, Ph.D., R.N.
Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses, was also a former member of the FDA vaccines panel.

Pebsworth spoke at a 2020 meeting of the FDA vaccines committee, where she identified herself as the research director for the National Vaccine Information Center and "mother of a child injured by his 15-month well-baby shots in 1998." She said the center's position was that any "coercion and sanctions to persuade adults to take an experimental vaccine, or give it to their children, is unethical and unlawful."

Retsef Levi, Ph.D.
Kennedy also praised another pick, MIT professor Retsef Levi, saying: "Dr. Levi has collaborated with public health agencies to evaluate vaccine safety, including co-authoring studies on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and their association with cardiovascular risks."

Levi previously called for more detailed data from the COVID-19 vaccine trials, suggesting that changes to how Pfizer's shot was produced may have caused side effects.

But Levi faced criticism for a paper co-authored with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, which was cited in the state's move to recommend that young men not get mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Experts condemned the paper for misleading methods that could inflate the risk.

Dr. Michael A. Ross
Kennedy said Dr. Michael A. Ross "contributed to national strategies for cancer prevention and early detection, including those involving HPV immunization," working with the CDC's breast and cervical cancer committee.

Ross is described by Kennedy as an obstetrics and gynecology professor at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, though his name does not appear on directories for either university. Spokespeople for the two institutions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investment firm Havencrest Capital Management lists Ross as a partner, and says he previously worked as an executive for India-based drugmaker Cadila Pharmaceutical.

Dr. James Pagano
Dr. James Pagano, described by Kennedy as a "strong advocate for evidence-based medicine," has published two fiction titles about hospital medicine, but little about vaccines or medicine.

"Over the course of his medical career he has worked in a number of emergency departments in the greater L.A. area, including major trauma centers as well as smaller community hospitals. He has been the medical director of one ER or another for many years," describes an Amazon listing for one of his books in 2012.

Records from the Medical Board of California list Pagano as being retired.

Dr. Joseph Hibbeln
Another Kennedy pick, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, retired from the National Institutes of Health in 2020. His research portfolio previously covered nutritional intake of fatty acids like omega-3. Kennedy described him as bringing "expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies."

Hibbeln previously co-authored a study probing whether exposure during pregnancy to mercury was linked to autism, in the wake of now-debunked research that falsely suggested a mercury-based preservative that was previously used in vaccines was causing autism.

Kennedy's monthslong search for new members
Kennedy's picks cap a monthslong search that the secretary and his aides have conducted for replacements to the committee.

Former CDC official Jeffrey Klausner, a professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine, said he was among those approached for suggestions early this year.

Klausner criticized Kennedy's pick of Malone, calling him a "a well-known promoter of various conspiracy theories and was advocating for use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID."

"Seems like his appointment is not consistent with some of Secretary Kennedy's public commitments," Klausner said.

Kennedy told reporters on Monday that he was picking "highly credentialed" experts for the panel.

"We're going to bring people onto the ACIP panel, not anti-vaxxers, who are bringing people on who are credentialed scientists, who are highly credentialed physicians, who are going to do evidence-based medicine," he said.