RFK Jr. picks new CDC vaccine advisors allied with the anti-vax movement

After firing the 17 health experts serving on a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) committee that issues recommendations on the use of vaccines, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed eight replacements Wednesday, including some who are part of the anti-vaccine movement or who have sharply criticized vaccines.

Before his ascent to President Donald Trump’s cabinet, Kennedy was well known as a trafficker in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. In an attempt to assuage concerns about his record, during his Senate confirmation process, Kennedy promised to maintain the CDC’s  Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) “without changes.”

Kennedy named microbiologist Robert Malone to the reconstituted advisory committee. Malone contributed to research that eventually would pave the way for the development of mRNA vaccines. He claims—falsely, experts say—to be the creator of the RNA technology at the heart of prominent COVID-19 vaccines. During the pandemic he became a leading voice against that technology, a star on right-wing media platforms who spread false claims alleging, for one example, that mRNA COVID vaccine maker Moderna had admitted that its vaccines can insert DNA into genomes and cause cancer. According to Factcheck.org, the claim led to social media posts saying the shots could cause “turbo cancer.”

Another appointee, Vicky Pebsworth, a registered nurse and PhD, is a board member of the anti-vaccine advocacy organization National Vaccine Information Center, described in the Washington Post as “the oldest anti-vaccine advocacy group” in the United States. The group has advocated for expanded exemptions from school vaccine requirements; has made anti-influenza vaccine advertisements; and, according to a 2019 Post report, was at the “forefront of a movement that has led some parents to forgo or delay immunizing their children against vaccine-preventable diseases.” Pebsworth’s bio on the center’s website claims that her son was injured by vaccines he received when he was 15 months old.

Kennedy also appointed Martin Kulldorf, an epidemiologist, who claims he was fired from a position at Harvard for his opposition to COVID measures like lockdowns and vaccination requirements. He is one of the authors of a controversial manifesto, published in the fall of 2020, which called for sequestering the elderly and immunocompromised from COVID, a strategy the authors called “focused protection,” while opening society for other demographic groups. Critics said this would allow the virus to spread widely without the protection that vaccines would be able to offer.

Some of those appointed by Kennedy have served in federal vaccine advisory positions before, including Pebsworth, who was on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. Kennedy said his picks for the committee was a slate that “includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians.“

“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,” Kennedy wrote on the social media site X.

The other new appointees are Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist; Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at MIT; Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth; James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; and Michael A. Ross, a clinical professor at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

States rely on ACIP recommendations to develop their own vaccine policies. If the director of the CDC agrees, committee-recommended vaccines are also required by law to be covered by insurance companies. The committee also recommends which vaccines the federal government provides at no cost to low-income children.

Kennedy said he fired sitting committee members due to conflicts of interest and because the Trump’s administration, otherwise, wouldn’t have an opportunity to appoint a majority of the committee until 2028. But Kennedy’s critics suggested that his real motivations were in keeping with his past as an anti-vaccine activist. As far as ACIP goes, the Washington Post editorial board intoned, Kennedy “has left no question what he would like to do with it: reduce access to vaccines.”

Editor’s note: This article initially said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed eight members to a CDC committee on Thursday. He did so on Wednesday.