by WorldTribune Staff, June 10, 2025 Real World News
All 17 members of the panel of experts which makes vaccine policy recommendations to the CDC were removed from their positions on Monday by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Thirteen of the members of the panel, officially known as the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), were appointed by the Biden Administration in 2024 with terms that were set to end in 2028.
“ACIP’s new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas,” Kennedy said, adding that the removed members would be replaced with those focused on “restoring public trust” in vaccines.
ACIP is composed of appointees including vaccine and infectious disease experts from academic medical centers and other public health professionals. They evaluate vaccine data at public meetings.
The panel was due to meet later this month to discuss the Covid injections, among other topics.
During his confirmation process in the Senate, Kennedy had said he would keep the panel but did not commit to maintaining its current makeup.
Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, who supplied a key vote to confirm Kennedy after receiving assurances he wouldn’t dismantle vaccine safety systems, said of Monday’s move: “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion. I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy wrote: “The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
Kennedy wrote that health authorities and drug companies were responsible for a “crisis of public trust” that some try to explain “by blaming misinformation or antiscience attitudes.”
In the editorial, Kennedy cited examples from the 1990s and 2000s and alleged that conflicts of interest persist: “Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines.”
Some public health experts were critical of Kennedy’s move.
“Unilaterally removing an entire panel of experts is reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful,” Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement.
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RFK, Jr. dismisses all members of CDC vaccine advisory board added by Editor Two on June 10, 2025
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