The next members of an influential federal vaccine policy advisory committee will be “highly credentialed physicians and scientists” and not “ideological anti-vaxxers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said late Tuesday.
In a lengthy social media post on X, Kennedy said he would announce the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) the same way in the coming days. The panel makes recommendations on vaccine usage to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“None of these individuals will be ideological anti-vaxxers,” Kennedy wrote. “They will be highly credentialed physicians and scientists who will make extremely consequential public health determinations by applying evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense.”
Kennedy said the new members will be in place before the panel’s next scheduled meeting that starts June 25. His post came about 24 hours after he fired all 17 members of the panel, his most aggressive action to reshape U.S. vaccine policy to date.
Kennedy, who rose to prominence as a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has made a variety of debunked claims about vaccine harms, including that the measles shot has been linked to autism.
He said his unprecedented decision to fire all the members of the panel was necessary to restore trust in the CDC and vaccines.
In Tuesday’s social media post, Kennedy continued to try to justify the move by highlighting what he said was “historical corruption” at the panel and its members’ alleged unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials for childhood vaccines.
He attempted to tie childhood vaccines that “modify the immune system” to an “epidemic of autoimmune diseases” and inferred that vaccine manufacturers don’t test their products for safety because they’re not in placebo-controlled trials.
“No one can scientifically ascertain whether these products are averting more problems than they are causing,” Kennedy claimed.
