RFK Jr. Announces New Members of Vaccine Advisory Panel
RFK Jr. Announces New Members of Vaccine Advisory Panel
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has chosen eight new members for the panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines.
The new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices include Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W. Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth, and Michael A. Ross, Kennedy announced on June 11.
“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations,” he said.
“The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas,” Kennedy said in a statement at the time.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is a panel convened by the CDC to offer advice about vaccines, including childhood and adult immunization schedules.
Kennedy told reporters in Washington this week that the new members would be credentialed scientists and doctors “who are going to do evidence-based medicine, who are going to be objective, and who are going to follow the science and make critical public health determinations for our children based upon the best science.”
Some Members Were Paid by Pharmaceutical Companies
Eight of the members whom Kennedy fired had been paid by pharmaceutical companies in the past, according to an Epoch Times review of disclosures and payment information.
Other previous members received thousands of dollars from Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Valneva, Merck, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Most of the funding, but not all, came before the members joined the panel. Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot’s term started in 2018, and she reported receiving $7,500 in research funding and $4,662 in payments from Sanofi in 2019.
An email to Talbot returned an automated message directing requests for comment to a spokesman for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, her employer. The spokesman did not return an inquiry.
Kennedy has criticized members over their ties to pharmaceutical companies.
The Department of Health also noted that all 17 members were appointed or had their terms renewed during the Biden administration, and that many were set to serve until 2027 or 2028. Keeping them in place would have meant the Trump administration could only appoint a minority of members until then, limiting its ability “to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines,” the department said in a statement.
Criticism and Praise
Some doctors and health groups voiced opposition to the terminations.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the top minority member of the panel, also expressed concern about the move.
Others praised the dismissals, including Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, a group Kennedy chaired before he became health secretary.
