Credit score: CC0 Public Area
US Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday introduced he was dismissing all present members of a key federal vaccine advisory panel, accusing them of conflicts of curiosity—his newest salvo in opposition to the nation’s immunization insurance policies.
The removing of all 17 specialists of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was revealed in a Wall Avenue Journal op-ed and an official press launch.
Kennedy, who has spent 20 years selling vaccine misinformation, solid the transfer as important to restoring public belief, claiming the committee had been compromised by monetary ties to pharmaceutical corporations.
“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” he mentioned in a press release from the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
“The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”
In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel was “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and had change into “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
He added that new members had been being thought of to switch these ousted—all of whom had been appointed beneath former president Joe Biden.
ACIP members are chosen for his or her acknowledged experience and are required to reveal potential conflicts of curiosity.
“RFK Jr. and the Trump administration are taking a wrecking ball to the programs that keep Americans safe and healthy,” Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer mentioned in response.
“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” Republican Senator Invoice Cassidy, a medical physician who expressed concern about Kennedy’s observe file throughout his Senate nomination however in the end voted in his favor, wrote on X.
“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”
‘Silencing experience’
The choice drew sharp criticism from Paul Offit, a pediatrician and main knowledgeable on virology and immunology who served on the panel from 1998 to 2003.
“He believes that anybody who speaks well of vaccines, or recommends vaccines, must be deeply in the pocket of industry,” Offit instructed AFP. “He’s fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines,” added Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a press release.
As soon as a celebrated environmental lawyer, Kennedy pivoted from the mid-2000s to public well being—chairing a nonprofit that discouraged routine childhood immunizations and amplified false claims, together with the long-debunked concept that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.
Since taking workplace, he has curtailed entry to COVID-19 pictures and continued to boost fears across the MMR vaccine—at the same time as the US faces its worst measles outbreak in years, with three reported deaths and greater than 1,100 confirmed instances.
Consultants warn the true case depend is probably going far larger.
“How can this country have confidence that the people RFK Jr. wants on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are people we can trust?” Offit requested.
He recalled that in US President Donald Trump’s first time period, a number of states shaped impartial vaccine advisory panels after the administration pressured federal well being companies to prematurely approve COVID-19 vaccines forward of the 2020 election.
That sort of fragmentation, Offit warned, may occur once more.
ACIP is scheduled to carry its subsequent assembly on the headquarters of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention in Atlanta from June 25 to June 27.
Vaccines for anthrax, COVID-19, human papillomavirus, influenza, Lyme illness, respiratory syncytial virus, and extra are on the agenda.
© 2025 AFP
Quotation:
RFK Jr ousts complete US vaccine panel over alleged conflicts (2025, June 10)
retrieved 10 June 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-06-rfk-jr-ousts-entire-vaccine.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for info functions solely.
