Sep 15, 2025 - Health
RFK Jr. appoints five more members to vaccine panel
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Kennedy. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday added five members to serve on his handpicked vaccine advisory panel just days ahead of a key meeting where the group will make recommendations for who should get COVID shots.
Why it matters: Some of the new members were critical of the pandemic response or faced charges of spreading misinformation.
- Last month's firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Susan Monarez, along with the resignations of several top agency scientists and appointment of some outside experts with known anti-vaccine views, left few guardrails on Kennedy's agenda.
The new members are:
- Kirk Milhoan, pediatric cardiologist and former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon based in Hawai'i, who was accused — and then cleared by the state medical board — of spreading COVID-19 misinformation. He's a member of the Kennedy-aligned group Independent Medical Alliance.
- Catherine Stein, a professor and epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who called for an end to vaccine mandates. She criticized the state's models for crafting its policy response to COVID as "cloaked in secrecy" in testimony to state lawmakers in 2020.
- Hilary Blackburn, a pharmacist and director of medication access and affordability at AscensionRx in Missouri, per LinkedIn. She hosts a podcast called "Talk to Your Pharmacist."
- Raymond Pollak, a surgeon and transplant specialist who appears to have brought a whistleblower case against the University of Illinois Hospital in 1999 for diagnosing patients as sicker than they actually were to increase transplant cases and qualify for more reimbursement.
- Evelyn Griffin, an OB-GYN in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is also trained in lifestyle medicine and functional medicine, according to Health and Human Services.
How it works: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices serves as an expert source to make recommendations to the CDC. While the CDC director still has final say, its recommendations can influence whether insurers cover vaccines.
- The panel is due to meet Sept. 18 and 19 to discuss COVID boosters the FDA approved for at-risk populations, as well as new recommendations on the MMR and hepatitis B vaccines.
- Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of ACIP in June, bringing on eight new members. One of those individuals later stepped down.
- Committee members typically are experts in immunology or epidemiology, carefully vetted for conflicts and serve full terms across presidential administrations.
- The Washington Post reported on Friday that officials plan to link COVID-19 vaccine to deaths of 25 children as they consider limiting which Americans should get the shots. The finding appears to come from a federal safety database that isn't designed to assess causality, per the Post.
