RFK’s CDC vaccine panel includes controversial COVID policy skeptics

Mere days after firing all 17 members of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory panel, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has nominated eight replacements—a few of whom are outspoken critics of COVID vaccines and policies surrounding the pandemic.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) helps advise on public inoculation recommendations, including everything from seasonal flu to diseases like measles. Those policies ultimately impact care delivery and shape insurance coverage for various immunizations.

Kennedy said he dismissed the panel—all appointees of President Biden—in order to make way for policies that reflect President Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, which calls for more focus on nutritional and environmental impacts on public health.

Of the eight nominees, the most notable is Robert Malone, MD, a controversial healthcare researcher whose credits include technologies that led to the creation of the mRNA vaccine. Since then, Malone has been a public critic of the use of the vaccines, particularly for COVID-19.

Malone was accused by public health officials during the pandemic of spreading misinformation about their safety.

Other appointees are Retsef Levi, PhD, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who has also been critical of mRNA vaccines and COVID-19 policy; and Vicky Pebsworth, PhD, RN, who is a board member of the National Vaccine Information Center—an activist group founded in 1982, mainly known for its broad skepticism of immunizations and surrounding public policy.

The remaining nominees—of whom there are expected to be more, as ACIP usually has 15 members—include:

• Martin Kulldorff, PhD, an epidemiologist previously with Harvard Medical School, who penned an open letter condemning many public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly lockdowns.
• Cody Meissner, MD, a pediatrician and professor at Dartmouth. He has worked in various advisory roles in federal agencies, including the CDC.
• Joseph Hibbeln, MD, formerly with the National Institutes of Health, where he researched mental health and brain science, in addition to the impacts of vaccine policy. He is also a researcher into nutritional health.
• James Pagano, MD, whose experience is mostly in clinical work as an emergency medicine doctor.
• Michael Ross, MD, an OB-GYN who previously worked on cervical cancer programs at the CDC. He is also a professor in his field at Virginia Commonwealth University and George Washington University.

Other nominees have yet to be announced, as this is a developing story. All new names are scheduled to be in place before ACIPs next meeting on June 25.