RFK Jr. taps new vaccine advisers days after firing previous panel
Global News
Kennedy chose new members to sit on the committee, including a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns.
On Wednesday, the head of the U.S. health department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appointed eight new members to a vaccine advisory committee from which he abruptly fired all 17 experts in one go earlier this week.
He ousted the panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which was predominantly comprised of practicing physicians with connections to top university medical centres, over claims that divisions among the group were undermining public trust in vaccinations.
“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” he wrote in an announcement, published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
On Wednesday, he tapped new members to sit on the committee, among them a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a beloved conservative commentator for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management.
On Tuesday, before he announced his picks, Kennedy said: “We’re going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel – not anti-vaxxers – bringing people on who are credentialed scientists,” according to the Associated Press.
Vicky Pebsworth is a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses and has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation.
Dr. Robert Malone is a former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. He also runs a wellness institute and a popular conspiracy-heavy blog, which gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as he shared unsubstantiated claims around the outbreak and the vaccines, including that they caused AIDS.
