RFK Jr. fires entire CDC vaccine advisory committee; replaces with skeptics (June 9, 2025 )
June 9, 2025 — HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — the independent panel of pediatricians, immunologists, and epidemiologists that reviews vaccine evidence and makes recommendations adopted into the federal immunization schedule — and within two days named 8 handpicked replacements that included prominent vaccine skeptics and COVID-19 misinformation figures.
The new appointees included Robert Malone, who claimed the COVID-19 vaccine could cause a form of AIDS and that Americans had been "hypnotized" into being vaccinated, and Martin Kulldorff, who was reportedly dismissed from Harvard for posts claiming naturally infected people do not need COVID-19 vaccines. The ousted members published a joint editorial in JAMA calling the dismissal "destabilizing" and warning it would "roll back the achievements of U.S. immunization policy" and "put U.S. families at risk of dangerous and preventable illness." Kennedy had previously assured Senator Bill Cassidy during confirmation that ACIP's recommendations would continue unchanged — a promise Cassidy cited in casting his confirming vote.
The purge came in the middle of an active measles outbreak. Kennedy claimed ACIP had been "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and was "little more than a rubber stamp" for vaccines. Public health organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advised physicians to look to their guidance rather than the reconstituted ACIP for science-based vaccine recommendations.
| https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/ousted-acip-members-fire-back-rfk-jrs-destabilizing-decisions-us-vaccine-policy |