Anti-vaccine advocate and current US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken the extraordinary action of firing all 17 vaccine experts on a federal committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on immunization practices.
In an opinion piece published Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy announced that he had cleared out the committee, accusing them of being "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and a group that has "become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."
"Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028," Kennedy added.
The committee—CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—meets periodically to publicly review, evaluate, debate, and make recommendations on immunization practices. The CDC typically adopts the committee's recommendations. The CDC's vaccination schedules and recommendations set clinical standards for the country and determine insurance coverage.
ACIP was scheduled to meet later this month to examine and make recommendations on this year's COVID-19 vaccines. But its recommendations were largely superseded by separate announcements from the Food and Drug Administration leaders and Kennedy, both of whom set new restrictions and requirements for use of COVID-19 vaccines in children and pregnant people. The moves are a significant break from the standardized, transparent protocols for setting immunization practices.
Announcing a restructuring of federal health guidance processes via an op-ed in a newspaper is also unusual.
In Kennedy's article, he criticized ACIP and FDA advisors for being in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry. However, he argued that the "problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt."
"Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it," he wrote. "The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy."
Kennedy, who is currently trying to shift the national attention to his idea of clean living and higher-quality foods, has a long history of advocating against vaccines, spreading misinformation and disinformation about the lifesaving shots. However, a clearer explanation of Kennedy's war on vaccines can be found in his rejection of germ theory. In his 2021 book that vilifies infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, he bemoaned germ theory as "the pharmaceutical paradigm that emphasized targeting particular germs with specific drugs rather than fortifying the immune system through healthy living, clean water, and good nutrition."
As such, he rails against the "$1 trillion pharmaceutical industry pushing patented pills, powders, pricks, potions, and poisons."
In Kennedy's op-ed, he indicates that new ACIP members will be appointed who "won’t directly work for the vaccine industry. ... will exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry."
It's unclear how the new members will be vetted and appointed and when the new committee will be assembled.
In a statement, the President of the American Medical Association, Bruce Scott, rebuked Kennedy's firings, saying that ACIP "has been a trusted national source of science- and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease." Today's removal "undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives," he continued. "With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses."
This post has been updated to include a statement from the AMA. This story is breaking and may be updated further.
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