US Health Secretary RFK Jnr ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee
Long-time vaccine skeptic Kennedy says a ‘clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science’
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr on Monday removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines and pledged to replace them with his own picks.
Doctors and public health groups criticised the move to oust all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices.
Kennedy, who was one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists before becoming the nation’s top health official, has not said who he would appoint to the panel, but said it would convene in just two weeks in Atlanta, Georgia.
Although it is typically not viewed as a partisan board, the Biden administration had installed the entire committee.
“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”