Kennedy Picks for CDC Panel Proudly Boast Vaccine Skepticism
WASHINGTON — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chosen eight new members for the panel of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, including a number of well-known vaccine skeptics.
The panel, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will not only review the current vaccine schedule, but also has tremendous sway in evaluating and advancing new vaccines.
The announcement of Kennedy’s picks on Wednesday came just days after he dismissed the sitting members of the committee.
In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Kennedy justified the decision to remove the previous members by saying it was done to restore public confidence in U.S. health agencies.
“The public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies. This will ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible,” Kennedy said.
Among the new appointees are known vaccine skeptics, some of whom rose to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, though Kennedy earlier this week promised not to appoint “ideological anti-vaxxers” to the panel in a post on X.
“None of these individuals will be ideological anti-vaxxers,” Kennedy said. “They will be highly credentialed physicians and scientists who will make extremely consequential public health determinations by applying evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense.”
In rolling out his new appointees on Thursday, Kennedy insisted that all of his choices are “committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.”
The American Medical Association responded by passing an emergency resolution calling for the immediate reversal of the proposed changes.
Among the most controversial nominees is Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, who co-authored a study in 2018 that suggests mercury exposure from a preservative commonly used in vaccines can cause autism. A 2010 study by the CDC found that not to be true.
Another appointee, Martin Kulldorff, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which claims that COVID-19 mandates had damaging physical and mental health impacts.
The Barrington Declaration also called for removing quarantine and social distancing mandates for “healthy people” before the vaccine was created, claiming that “keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage.”
Retsef Levi, the third listed appointee, posted on the X platform in early 2023 that “COVID mRNA vaccine programs should stop immediately,” and believed that the vaccines were causing cardiac arrest in patients, specifically young people and children.
Another, Dr. Robert Malone, attended an election night party with Kennedy and President Donald Trump. Malone worked on mRNA vaccine research and claims to have invented the technology.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Malone was accused of spreading misinformation on one of the most-watched podcasts in the country, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Dr. Cody Meissner was a member of the Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisors, which made recommendations to authorize the use of COVID-19 vaccines. Meissner often disagreed with mask mandates and published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, with FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, opposing mask mandates for children.
Vicky Pebsworth is a board member of the National Vaccine Information Center. The NVIC has historically opposed vaccine mandates, and supports “the human right to freedom of thought and conscience and … the inclusion of flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief exemptions in vaccine policies and laws.”
Dr. Michael Ross, a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist, and Dr. James Pagano, a Los Angeles-based emergency medicine physician, were also appointed to the council and have no previous history of opposing vaccines.
Former ACIP member Dr. Helen Chu voiced concerns over this new board and the speed of their appointments.
“The ACIP has a very deliberate, careful process,” Chu said. “When I was appointed, the vetting process took two years; this one took two days.”
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