RFK removes all members of CDC panel (ACIP) advising on vaccines

px_eliezer_ · 2025-06-09T21:55:01+00:00

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is “retiring” all 17 members of a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors, a shocking step that could help to sow doubts about immunizations in the U.S. Kennedy claimed that the panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.” But all HHS agencies and their advisory panels have had rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years. All members of federal vaccine advisory committees are already required to comply with regulations around disclosing potential conflicts of interest. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/09/rfk-jr-cdc-panel-vaccines.html The ACIP truly has been the premier group, this is very unfortunate. All the ACIP member info is now GONE from the HHS site. Have to go to the WAYBACK MACHINE. https://web.archive.org/web/20250529042518/https://www.cdc.gov/acip/membership/index.html

ugly95

px_eliezer_ Dr. Meissner is fairly decent among the group.
Especially when compared to the others.

I think in terms of vaccines, I don’t think I’ve seen anything unobjectionable that he’s said. But, he was rubbing elbows with the likes of Bhattacharya, Joseph Ladepo and Kulldorff, and was in the room with Trump to promote the Great Barrington Declaration. I think he was anti-mask as well. Not that it would disqualify him from having proper expertise - but a lot of people that are sympathetic to contrarian views have pivoted hard into unreality.

As for some of the others: Were were told that the problem with ACIP was that there were too many conflicts of interest:
Two of Kennedy’s New ACIP Picks Were Paid Expert Witnesses in Merck Vaccine Cases

According to Reuters, biostatistician and epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, a highly visible critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates, provided expert testimony against Merck in a massive case where dozens of plaintiffs claimed that the company’s HPV vaccine Gardasil caused cancer, and that the pharma had downplayed these risks.

Endpoints News additionally reported that Robert Malone, a biochemist and early mRNA vaccine researcher, was separately paid to present a 2018 report for plaintiffs in a civil case against Merck over its mumps vaccine. It is unclear how much Malone earned during this stint, though Endpoints reported that he charged $350 per hour.

Conflicts of Interest Disclosures of ACIP Members

ACIP members are required to declare any potential or perceived conflicts of interest that arise in the course of ACIP tenure and any relevant business interests, positions of authority or other connections with organizations relevant to the work of the ACIP.

Rook

Anyone have a citation for the former administration “retiring” members of the ACIP in order to appoint new ones?
Seems like something that would have made the news (like how it’s making the news now).

Astyanax

px_eliezer_ Normal cycle of things….

There was nothing “normal” about it. It was a deliberate act to pack the committee with the outgoing administration’s people to undermine the incoming one’s.

Before leaving office, President Biden’s health secretary approved the appointments of eight new candidates to a critical committee that helps set U.S. vaccination policy — a burst of activity within a matter of a few months that could, in theory, make it more difficult for the Trump administration to shape the panel with its own appointees, several sources have told STAT.

The late-in-the day move to fill four new spots on the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices, and approve replacements for four members whose terms expire at the end of June, was motivated by a desire to try to insulate the scientific integrity of the panel from the incoming administration, one source told STAT, stacking it with people who, unlike President Trump’s pick as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have not expressed skepticism about vaccines.

“It was very intentional,” a former senior Health and Human Services Department official said. “It was our goal to fill every vacancy on every [federal advisory committee] the department has, with particular focus on ones like ACIP where maintenance of our scientific expertise was critical.”

The moves would seem to deprive Kennedy — should he be confirmed as HHS secretary — of a chance to name new members of the ACIP, which helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determine the appropriate use of vaccines, until 2027.

https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/31/vaccine-policy-acip-members-appointees-hhs/

What was not normal is firing the whole group at once.

Firing them all was the only way to maintain any integrity and control.

Somewhat-Reticent

So why hasn’t Congress set up an independent panel?

Rook

Astyanax

“It was very intentional,” a former senior Health and Human Services Department official said. “It was our goal to fill every vacancy on every [federal advisory committee] the department has, with particular focus on ones like ACIP where maintenance of our scientific expertise was critical.”

Filling vacancies. I’m not seeing anything about creating vacancies.

But I agree that firing everyone is about control.

Astyanax

Rook Filling vacancies. I’m not seeing anything about creating vacancies.

and approve replacements for four members whose terms expire at the end of June

Were these appointees whose terms were expiring in June get to serve out their terms or were they being replaced immediately as of January? Maybe that’s what actually happened.

egeezer

Astyanax maintain any integrity and control.

Lol

Rook

Astyanax It’s covered in the article you linked to.

px_eliezer_

Somewhat-Reticent So why hasn’t Congress set up an independent panel?

The current administration holds to the “unitary executive” legal theory, in which even boards that have long been considered somewhat independent from the executive branch (eg FTC, FCC, NLRB, SEC, and others—MAYBE even the Federal Reserve Bank—are actually subject to full presidential control.

Likewise the Smithsonian, Kennedy Center, Institute for Peace, and somehow even the Library of Congress.

px_eliezer_

Did RFK break his promise to Cassidy ??

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-health-chief-says-sen-cassidy-promised-pick-vaccine-panel-2025-06-12/

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/cdc-vaccine-panel-acip-rfk-jr-kennedy-rcna212007

ugly95

The members of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine committee have published little on vaccines

What is leaving:

All but one of the 17 fired ACIP members have published about vaccines, with a group average of 49 papers, and a range from three to 195. The most prolific former ACIP member was Noel Brewer of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a highly cited researcher who studies uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) and COVID-19 vaccines. The former panelists’ work spans topics including many infectious diseases, vaccine development, how to immunize cancer patients and pregnant people, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation.

Compared to what is entering:

The eight new ACIP members average just 11 papers. The most prolific vaccine author is biostatistician Martin Kulldorff, with 51 papers, many of them focusing on vaccine safety and adverse events. Kulldorff wrote last year that he was forced out of Harvard Medical School for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Rook

Measles and Whooping Cough are going to be so happy.

HooRU

How anyone can support this madness amazes me. Cognitive dissonance.

Somewhat-Reticent

HooRU Can it be done better (and, for gov’t, cheaper) some other way?

egeezer

The reason for the firings was assertions of unspecified conflicts of interest. Apparently, new appointments are getting a pass on the requirements.

Under ACIP’s rules, committee members cannot serve as a “paid litigation consultant or expert witness in litigation involving a vaccine manufacturer” during their tenure on the panel.

https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/exclusive-kennedys-new-vaccine-adviser-was-expert-witness-2025a1000ftx?ecd=a2a

real_aurgathor

But these are better qualified candidates, so that requirement can be dropped now….

ugly95

egeezer The reason for the firings was assertions of unspecified conflicts of interest. Apparently, new appointments are getting a pass on the requirements.

We’re seeing these types of contradictions all over the place with people like RFK Jr., Vinay Prasad, Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary in charge.

For example, on one hand they are announcing ‘gold standard of evidence’. Sounds good if taken at face value. But they are also talking a lot about things like ‘common sense’ and ‘relying more on anecdotes’ and ‘a more fluid concept of evidence’.

We’re quickly seeing that they demand the highest standard of evidence for the things they don’t like, and vibes and feelings for the things that they do like.

egeezer

ugly95 ‘gold standard of evidence’.

Good point. Half assed research conducted by people not qualified or interested in objective research, peer review or proper protocols and procedures are not conducive to formulating good medical policy.

We need gold standards, not gold plated pot metal standards.

Bombtrad

egeezer We need gold standards, not gold plated pot metal standards.

I hope that none of my friends here have kids or grandkids who fall to childhood preventable disseaess whilst the clowns are in charge of the circus. I wonder if a current antivaccer sentiment would hold in a full-blown epidemic of;
Measles
Polio
Diptheia
Mumps
Rubella …………. and etc.

Unless of course sufficiently high doses of, ………. now what was it ………….. cod liver oil ??? …………do the job.

I do observe that lesser endowed nations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Europe and South America still hold to vigorous campaigns fighting preventable diseases.

Grrrr!!! Spell checK is not working.

egeezer

Bombtrad . I wonder if a current antivaccer sentiment would hold in a full-blown epidemic of;
Measles
Polio
Diptheia
Mumps
Rubella …………. and etc.

Or an Intentional smuggling and release of a fast spreading biological agent that targets people through spread from human to human, or animal/plant to human.

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