Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced eight new members of an expert panel that advises the federal government on immunization policy, including several vocal vaccine critics and one who identifies as an "anti-vaxxer."
The newly reconstituted panel includes numerous scientists with less conventional views. Several weren't aware of their appointments when contacted by Bloomberg.
The moves come as Mr Kennedy makes major changes to how immunizations are studied and administered in the US and paves the way for a more skeptical approach to the use of shots that prevent deadly infections. In just the first few months of his tenure,Mr Kennedy's already taken steps to restrict vaccine approvals and access.
On Monday, I took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). I retired the 17 current members of the committee. I'm now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP's…
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) June 11, 2025
Mr Kennedy removed all 17 former members of the panel on Monday, saying "a clean sweep is needed to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science." It was an unprecedented dismantling of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which reviews the latest data and makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically implements them.
The new members, including one who claimed Covid shots were causing AIDS and a nurse who became an advocate after saying her child suffered long-term health damage from immunizations, are in a position to revamp vaccine use in the US. The group's positions are used to help determine what shots are given and whether insurers pay for them, among other things.
Vaccine Skeptics
Robert Malone, a scientist who studied messenger RNA, has spent years espousing debunked theories about the safety of Covid vaccines, at one point claiming the shots were "causing a form of AIDS."
While Mr Kennedy said Tuesday afternoon that he would not appoint "anti-vaxxers" to the panel, Malone said in a post on X that he embraced the title two days before his appointment was announced.
"The term 'anti-vaxer' it is not a slur, but a compliment. Embrace it. Own it. and be proud to be a part of this fight," Mr Malone wrote.
The post didn't indicate Malone is saying he is an anti-vaxxer, according to an HHS official. Instead, it says he opposes vaccine mandates, the official said.
Vicky Pebsworth, the nurse who became involved in vaccine safety research because of her child, is listed as the head of research and patient safety for the National Vaccine Information Center, an advocacy group that questions the safety of vaccines.
Retsef Levi, an operations professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology business school, has called into question the safety of mRNA Covid vaccines, including in a post on X.
"The evidence is mounting and indisputable that MRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people. We have to stop giving them immediately!" Mr Levi posted in January 2023.
Mr Levi also co-authored a study in April about people dying after getting mRNA Covid shots. He wrote that with Joseph Ladapo, the controversial surgeon general of Florida who gained prominence during the Covid pandemic for contradicting federal public health guidance. The study was a preprint, which means it has not been subject to rigorous, peer-reviewed vetting.
Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who formerly worked at Harvard Medical School, was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration alongside National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya. The manifesto called for an alternative to Covid lockdowns focused on protecting the elderly and others at high risk of infection while opening up the rest of society to return to normal early in the outbreak. Another of the appointees, Dartmouth College professor of pediatrics Cody Meissner, signed the declaration.
The health secretary, at a showing of Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center in DC on Wednesday, said he changed the makeup of the panel "because the American people deserve it" and because of financial entanglements among the members.
"How America responds to outbreaks, pandemics, and preventable deaths are now in the hands of a small group of 'experts' who are loyal to" Mr Kennedy, said Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, a nonprofit that works to get Democratic scientists elected.
Ms Naughton called on Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy to investigate why the original panel was dismissed. Mr Kennedy previously promised Cassidy he would not touch the vaccine committee to secure the Republican's vote for the top health job.
Member List
The list also includes:
- James Pagano, an emergency room doctor from California
- Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and visiting professor at University of Bristol
- Michael Ross, an obstetrician and gynecologist and the chief medical officer of the generics company Mantra Pharma
"I am grateful for the honor to be selected, and will do my best to serve without bias and with rigor," Malone said in a brief phone interview with Bloomberg. "I am honored with this opportunity and humbled by the responsibility," Levi said Wednesday in a post on X.com
Pagano, Kulldorff and Meissner couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Hibbeln, Ross and Pebsworth declined to comment.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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