Kennedy Fires Then Appoints New Members Vaccine Committee

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dismissed all 17 members of the HHS Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a federal panel that makes vaccine policy recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The committee was formed in 1964 and has largely been comprised of experts in medicine, public health, and immunology.

Following the abrupt decision, Secretary Kennedy announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter) the appointment of 8 new members to the committee, including Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD; Martin Kulldorff, MD, PhD; Retsef Levi, PhD; Robert W. Malone, MD; Cody Meissner, MD; James Pagano, MD; Vicky Pebsworth, OP, PhD, RN; and Michael A. Ross, MD. It is unclear how the members of the committee were selected.

Nearly all of the newly appointed members have a history of anti-vaccine rhetoric, including Levi and Malone, who have both publicly pushed false claims that the COVID-19 vaccines led to serious harm and death during the pandemic. Pebsworth also serves on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, a non-profit accused of promoting vaccine misinformation, and Kulldorff who, alongside NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and other authors, wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, which urged herd-immunity in lieu of shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly appointed ACIP is scheduled to meet June 25-27 to discuss the COVID-19 vaccines, among others. The meeting can be viewed virtually here.

Stay tuned to COSSA’s continued coverage of the new Administration.