U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is reportedly planning to add seven new members to the Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine advisory panel, including known vaccine skeptics.
On Wednesday, physician and writer Jeremy Faust revealed the list of potential new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, in his newsletter, Inside Medicine, with other sources seeming to confirm its authenticity. Among the names on the list are several researchers and clinicians who have misrepresented the scientific consensus around vaccinations, or otherwise questioned their use. The panel’s purpose is to act as an independent adviser to the CDC, and its recommendations help steer vaccine policy, as well as insurance coverage for jabs.
News of the list comes after Kennedy fired the panel’s members in June and installed his own picks, causing concern among public health experts and lawmakers alike.
During a hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, Kennedy deflected criticisms of his ACIP picks. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) noted that several of Kennedy’s current ACIP members have received money from testifying in vaccine-related lawsuits. Cassidy argued that this history constituted a financial conflict of interest—the same rationale Kennedy used to dismiss the old ACIP members. Kennedy disagreed entirely, instead claiming that someone being paid to testify against vaccines was merely evidence of them potentially having a bias.
Kennedy’s first vaccine target
In early June, Kennedy unilaterally fired all 17 ACIP members, citing conflicts of interest despite significant vetting and disclosure processes. He then quickly restocked the panel with several ideological allies, some of whom have a record of attacking vaccine safety by citing widely criticized research, or who have financially benefited from testifying against vaccine manufacturers.
Later that month, the new but still short-staffed ACIP recommended the removal of an additive called thimerosal that contains mercury from the very few remaining vaccines that contain it.
Anti-vaccination proponents have long blamed thimerosal in vaccines for causing autism and neurological problems, but a mountain of studies over the past two decades have failed to find any such connection, and it is widely considered to be safe. Regardless, Kennedy and the HHS adopted the panel’s recommendation in July.
Stacking the deck
Now, Kennedy appears to have picked who will fill the remaining seats on the panel. At least half of the reported new selections appear to have some bias against at least one vaccine.
One of the names on the list is Joseph Fraiman. An emergency medicine specialist in New Orleans, he has authored several papers claiming to show the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines caused more serious adverse effects than commonly believed. At an event led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in late 2022, Fraiman even argued that the COVID-19 vaccines were not safe and effective.
Unsurprisingly, many other scientists have criticized Fraiman’s research and methodology, and the vast majority of studies have reaffirmed the safety and life-saving benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.
Another person on the list is pediatric cardiologist Kirk Milhoan, who has also attacked the COVID-19 vaccines and testified in a 2024 congressional hearing on vaccine injuries hosted by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Milhoan’s also a senior fellow at Independent Medical Alliance, a group that has promoted dubious treatments for the coronavirus and questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
Also named is John Gaitanis, a pediatric neurologist who has testified as an paid expert witness in a specialized federal vaccine court on behalf of people who believe they or their children were harmed by vaccines.
And so is Catherine Stein, a tuberculosis expert at Case Western Reserve University who previously called for an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates at universities.
Kennedy also seems to have tried eliminating pro-vaccine voices from elsewhere in the government.
Earlier this week, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a former ACIP member, and outspoken Kennedy critic, was reportedly barred from further participation on the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biologics Products Advisory Committee. Offit claims he was offered an extension of his current term by FDA officials until 2027, but that this extension was overturned by HHS without any explanation.
Grim outlook ahead
The ACIP is set to meet later this month, when it is expected to weigh in on several issues that could have widespread implications for vaccine access moving forward. The panel will discuss and potentially offer recommendations on the COVID-19 vaccines, the hepatitis B vaccine, and the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. Several members of Congress have called for the meeting to be delayed, including GOP members previously supportive of Kennedy’s nomination.
Ordinarily, it takes months of vetting before prospective new members are formally added to the ACIP, so it’s not clear whether the people on the possible additions list will be part of that meeting. It’s also unclear whether the vetting and disclosure process for ACIP members will change as a result of these moves, or how it might affect vaccine policy more broadly.
At the Senate hearing on Thursday, Sen. Cassidy said Kennedy appeared to be disrupting access to vaccines through his actions as health secretary—an accusation Kennedy denied. The health secretary also repeatedly criticized the CDC for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ultimately, Kennedy seems as committed as ever to pushing forward his agenda, even as his decisions fueled the collapse of the CDC’s senior leadership last week. And without a drastic change of course, it seems unlikely that Kennedy and the new ACIP will be deterred.
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