US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy (RFK) Jr has appointed eight new members to the vaccine advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just days after firing the panel’s previous members in full.
Announcing the new panel members on X, RFK Jr described them as “highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians”.
Amongst the new members on the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are well-known vaccine sceptics and individuals who were critical of both the Covid-19 vaccines and related countermeasures such as lockdowns.
ACIP is the committee responsible for reviewing vaccine data and issuing official government recommendations on immunisations. RFK Jr axed all 17 members belonging to the previous slate earlier this week.
It is unclear why only eight have been appointed, with no details on whether more may be added. If the panel’s current tally is final, it would represent more than a 50% reduction in the committee’s size. Final recommendations on vaccines must receive a vote from a majority of the committee, meaning it could be harder to pass changes to immunisation schedules.
Who’s on the panel?
Perhaps the most well-known opponent to vaccines joining the panel – apart from the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) chief himself, is Dr Robert Malone.
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By GlobalDataDr Malone is an anti-vaccine activist who has spread misinformation about coronavirus and the vaccines used to treat it. More recently, he blamed, without evidence, hospital error as the cause of recent paediatric deaths in children with measles, rather than the lack of immunisation against the disease. Dr Malone claims to have played an integral role in the creation of the mRNA vaccine, though Covid-19 experts have debunked this.
RFK Jr said Dr Malone is “known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”, and “has served in advisory roles for the HHS and the Department of Defense”.
Also appointed is Vicky Pebsworth, the current director of research and patient safety at the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that advocates for vaccine exemptions and is a known source of misinformation.
Other panel members include medical and health experts with no clear ties to vaccine development or public health strategy. James Pagano, for example, has worked in trauma centres and served on hospital committees, with no particular experience of vaccine deployment.
Professor of operations management, Retsef Levi, also joins the panel despite not holding a medical degree. He has previously called for an end to Covid vaccinations, claiming mRNA vaccines cause serious harm and death.
Previous CDC experience comes in the form of Dr Martin Kulldorff, Dr Cody Meissner and Dr Michael Ross. Dr Joseph R Hibbeln, who has held an advisory role at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), rounds off the new appointees.
In a post on LinkedIn, University of California law professor Dorit Reiss said: “In spite of Secretary Kennedy’s claims, several of his new appointees have clear anti-vaccine antecedents and others have no expertise related to vaccines.
“I’m a bit sorry for the more legitimate people who will be tainted by their association with this.”
RFK Jr stated in an X post that: “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.”
RFK Jr removed the previous incumbents after alleging it had been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine”.
The California Immunization Coalition rebukes this, saying in a statement: “ACIP members have faithfully and professionally represented the interests of public health for over 60 years. There is zero evidence of compromise or conflict of interest. Current and past members of ACIP participate in a thorough vetting and review process and are among the most experienced and knowledgeable infectious disease experts in the world.”
