RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Sparks Alarm with Sweeping Review of Childhood Immunizations
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Sparks Alarm with Sweeping Review of Childhood Immunizations
A newly appointed federal vaccine panel, controversially hand-selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., convened its inaugural two-day meeting yesterday, immediately announcing its intent to re-evaluate the entire childhood and adult vaccination schedules. The session was quickly dominated by arguments echoing long-standing anti-vaccine talking points, confirming the gravest fears of public health experts who warn of the panel’s critical corruption and its potential to undermine decades of established vaccine science.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) wasted no time in condemning the new committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), calling its work “no longer a credible process.” In a dramatic departure from decades of cooperation, the AAP boycotted the meeting, with President Susan Kressly stating, “We won’t lend our name or our expertise to a system that is being politicized at the expense of children’s health.”
The controversial shift stems from Kennedy’s unilateral decision on June 9 to dismiss all 17 long-serving ACIP members, replacing them two days later with eight new appointees. Many of these new members hold views widely considered anti-vaccine or contrarian to mainstream public health, with some lacking relevant expertise. Adding to the pre-meeting turmoil, one of the new appointees, Michael Ross, withdrew just last night during a mandatory financial review, leaving seven members to begin the session this morning.
The tone for the meeting was set by the new ACIP chair, Martin Kulldorff, who introduced himself by openly recounting his refusal of the COVID-19 vaccine and his subsequent dismissal from Harvard University and a previous ACIP working group. Kulldorff’s first order of business was to establish a new working group dedicated to reviewing the safety of vaccine schedules in their entirety, rather than individual vaccines. This move directly reflects an anti-vaccine narrative that children today receive “too many vaccines.”
Kulldorff emphasized the need to evaluate “the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule,” including “interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients, and the relative timing of different vaccines.” Public health experts quickly rebutted this, pointing out that while children receive vaccines for more diseases today than in the past, modern vaccines are far more efficient, exposing them to significantly fewer antigens (elements of germs) to generate immunity. Furthermore, cumulative effects are inherently assessed during clinical trials, where new vaccines are tested on children who are also receiving their full recommended schedule.
The panel also signaled intentions to target specific vaccines, including the critical hepatitis B vaccine given to newborns. The AAP immediately denounced this as “unscientific and dangerous,” underscoring the vaccine’s life-saving impact: untreated infants infected with hepatitis B face a 90% chance of developing chronic disease and a 25% mortality rate. Thanks to vaccination, hepatitis B cases plummeted to just 13 in 2022.
Throughout yesterday’s discussions, several new ACIP members voiced concerning opinions. Retsef Levi, an operations management expert, offered a puzzling critique of CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine efficacy analysis, suggesting vaccines might make individuals “more vulnerable.” Robert Malone, who claims to have invented mRNA vaccines and embraces the “anti-vaxxer” label, propagated false information about dangerous COVID-19 vaccine lots. Vicky Pebsworth, a nurse affiliated with an anti-vaccine organization, expressed “very concerned” that CDC’s safety monitoring systems miss adverse events, demanding access to “data that we probably wouldn’t ordinarily have.” CDC experts affirmed the robustness of their monitoring systems.
The committee concluded its first day without any votes. However, today, Thursday, June 26, the panel is set to vote on an RSV monoclonal antibody and discuss influenza vaccines. The agenda also includes a presentation on a measles vaccine, a frequent target of anti-vaccine activists. Notably, a scheduled presentation on alleged dangers of thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative falsely linked to autism) will be delivered by the former president of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization, the Children’s Health Defense, with researchers already noting its reliance on a non-existent study.
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