RFK Jr. names 8 new members of vax advisory panel
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on Wednesday named eight new members to serve on an influential federal vaccine advisory panel after firing all 17 of the committee's members.
Why it matters: While Kennedy posted on X that the new appointees are committed to evidence-based medicine, several have a history of expressing anti-vaccine sentiment or voicing concerns about COVID-19 or mRNA vaccines.
- Some were also signers of the Great Barrington Declaration, a petition authored by a group of scientists including current NIH director Jay Bhattacharya that advocated for allowing COVID to spread among young, healthy people to reach herd immunity faster. The approach drew fierce criticism from many experts.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices serves as an outside expert source to make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its recommendations can influence whether insurers cover vaccines.
The new members are:
Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician who previously served on the Vaccine Safety Subgroup of ACIP and who was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration.
- For refusing COVID vaccination, he was fired from Mass General Brigham, which resulted in his also losing his position at Harvard Medical School. He later claimed it was because he was "too pro-vaccine."
Robert Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist who made early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology. He was dubbed a "misinformation star" by the New York Times for spreading false information about COVID and mRNA shots, including claiming he was an inventor of the technology.
Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, who has previously held advisory roles for both CDC and FDA. He is also a signer of the Great Barrington Declaration and co-wrote an editorial with FDA commissioner Marty Makary during the COVID pandemic arguing against masking for children.
Retsef Levi, a professor of operations research at MIT. Levi has been a critic of mRNA vaccines, posting on social media in 2023 that "we have to stop giving them immediately."
Vicky Pebsworth, a longtime nurse with a Ph.D. in public health. She previously served on the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's vaccine safety working group for the H1N1 vaccine.
- As of 2022, Pebsworth served on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, an anti-vaccine group. She's spoken publicly about her son experiencing long-term health issues following vaccines at 15 months old.
Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who previously worked at the NIH for many years. He primarily studies nutrition and brain health.
Michael Ross, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University.
James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician licensed in Florida and California.
The other side: The announcement immediately stoked fears from some public health experts that the committee selections are overly skeptical of vaccines.
- "It's entirely possible that some of these people may be completely non-problematic," Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan.
- However, others are "unbelievably anti-vax people. They are 100% not going to approach this in good faith."
None of the new members immediately responded to a request for comment.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that, for refusing the COVID vaccine, Martin Kulldorff was fired by Mass General Brigham, not Harvard — though his firing resulted in his also losing his Harvard Medical School post.
