RFK Jr. names five new CDC vaccine committee members

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday added five new members to a key government vaccine panel that he purged in June. 

The move comes before a critical meeting of the committee, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The panel will review data and make recommendations on vaccines for Covid-19 and Hepatitis B, as well as the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella shot, ahead of the fall and winter season. 

So, who are the new advisors? They include an infectious disease expert who has pushed back on Covid mandates, such as vaccine requirements, mandates and another member who has advocated for unproven treatments for that virus, including ivermectin.

“There’s some evidence to certainly suggest that some of the members have based their opinions on questionable scientific information or have misinterpreted the results of scientific studies,” Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University, told CNBC. 

That’s no surprise: The seven members Kennedy appointed to ACIP earlier this year included some widely known vaccine critics. Kennedy maintains that gutting the last committee was necessary to restore public trust in immunizations. 

But the panel has traditionally consisted of independent medical and public health experts “who rely on the gold standard of best scientific evidence,” Maniar said. He called it “concerning that we’re moving in a very different direction with a committee that plays a very important role in terms of immunization policy and coverage” in the U.S. 

ACIP routinely reviews vaccine data and makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that determine who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other efforts. 

Here’s what to know about the five new members: 

• Kirk Milhoan is a pediatric cardiologist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Texas. HHS in a release said he “holds a Ph.D. in the mechanisms of myocardial inflammation.” He is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formed in 2020 that has been fighting to restrict the use of mRNA Covid vaccines for pregnant women and children and has advocated for unproven Covid treatments. Milhoan’s bio on the group’s website says he is dedicated to treating patients with “vaccine-related cardiovascular toxicity due to the spike protein.” At a 2024 panel on vaccine injuries convened by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and vocal Covid shot skeptic, Milhoan claimed those vaccines pose more harm than good. 
• Hillary Blackburn is a pharmacist and director of medication access and affordability at the Catholic health system, Ascension. She is the daughter-in-law of Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
• Evelyn Griffin is an obstetrician and gynecologist based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. HHS said “she was among the first robotic-assisted gynecologic surgeons in the U.S. and has led efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.” According to local reports, she has spoken against Louisiana’s decision to add Covid shots to the school immunization schedule and has testified about adverse reactions from vaccines. 
• Raymond Pollak is a transplant surgeon in Illinois. In 1999, Pollak was a whistleblower in a suit against the University of Illinois Hospital alleging that the hospital admitted patients for liver transplants when they were not medically necessary. HHS said he’s published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and been a principal investigator on National Institutes of Health transplant biology grants and numerous drug trials. Pollak’s views on vaccines are unclear.
• Catherine Stein, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. HHS said she has published 115 peer-reviewed articles, and her research has focused on tuberculosis and infectious diseases. Stein has been openly critical of the U.S.’s response to Covid and has downplayed the severity of the pandemic. She told Ohio lawmakers that health officials were inflating Covid death and hospitalization numbers, according to Ohio Capital Journal. 

We’ll be covering the ACIP meeting this week with the new members, so stay tuned for our coverage. 

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at a new email: annika.constantino@versantmedia.com.

I’m not going far, so please stay in touch. You can send me tips and story ideas at ashley.capoot@versantmedia.com. 

Until next time! 

UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley seems to be taking a page from that playbook.

Hemsley met with the president’s chief of staff Susie Wiles recently, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move comes as the UnitedHealth CEO is trying to get out company out from under a cloud of regulatory scrutiny.

This summer, legal staff approached the Department of Justice about an investigation into its business, and later this fall the company is set to release an outside audit of its business practices in its Medicare and pharmacy benefits units.

In response to the report, a spokesman for the company told CNBC, “Public policy shapes health care across America, and it’s our responsibility to engage with the administration and Congress at all levels to improve patient access and affordability.”

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Bertha at a new email: bertha.coombs@versantmedia.com.