RFK Jr. Taps 8 New ACIP Members, Offit Concedes Most ‘Seem Reasonable’
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the move late Wednesday on X, two days after removing all 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in what he called “a major step in restoring public trust in vaccines.” Mainstream media largely panned the new panelists, labeling some “anti-vaxxers.”
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight researchers and physicians to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel to replace approximately half of the members he fired from the panel earlier this week.
Kennedy announced the move late Wednesday on X, two days after removing all 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, in what he called “a major step in restoring public trust in vaccines.”
Kennedy said the new group includes “highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians,” all of whom are “committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.”
He also said the members have “committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations” and that they will review the safety and efficacy data for the current childhood immunization schedule.
The eight new members are, according to Kennedy:
- Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service.
- Martin Kulldorff, M.D., Ph.D., a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance.
- Retsef Levi, Ph.D., professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a leading expert in healthcare analytics, risk management, and vaccine safety.
- Dr. Robert W. Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology.
- Dr. Cody Meissner, professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a nationally recognized expert in pediatric infectious diseases and vaccine policy.
- Dr. James Pagano, a board-certified emergency medicine physician with over 40 years of clinical experience following his residency at UCLA.
- Vicky Pebsworth, OP, Ph.D., RN, who holds a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan.
- Dr. Michael A. Ross, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, with a career spanning clinical medicine, research, and public health policy.
Several new members previously served on advisory committees for federal public health agencies.
ACIP committee members advise the CDC on vaccine recommendations. The new members will attend the next ACIP meeting on June 25. The agenda for the meeting is not yet posted.
Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, said she was “delighted” with the clean sweep of the ACIP committee and “cautiously optimistic” about the newly proposed members.
“Given the Senate’s close scrutiny over Kennedy’s picks, he likely did not have free rein to consider any and all possibilities,” Holland said. She said there will likely be a diversity of opinions among the group, “which will better educate the public about the real potential harms and benefits of vaccines.”
Holland added:
“Candidly, I’m not sure this committee, or many of the federal advisory committees at CDC and FDA are warranted. They will likely continue to be clear targets for corporate capture.
“But to the extent that this is a fresh start, I am pleased, and especially so to see Vicky Pebsworth among the picks, given her long experience on similar federal advisory bodies.”
Media’s go-to vaccine cheerleader concedes most of RFK Jr.’s picks ‘seem reasonable’
Mainstream media reports focused on new members who have gone on record in the past with concerns about vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine.
The media widely cited Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the committee that advises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on vaccine approvals.
Offit is also a vaccine developer who holds the patent on the rotavirus vaccine. He’s an outspoken critic of Kennedy, and the mainstream media’s go-to commentator whenever anyone questions vaccines.
Offit told the media there were two “anti-vaccine activists” on the new panel: Malone and Pebsworth.
Malone, a biochemist who did early research on mRNA vaccine technology, was an early supporter of the COVID-19 shots before he became a critic. He maintains that mRNA vaccines can be useful and has collaborated with people from intelligence agencies on virus research.
Pebsworth has worked in healthcare for more than 45 years and previously served on vaccine advisory committees for the CDC and FDA. She’s also served on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, which informs the public about risks associated with vaccines — which mainstream media refers to as “spreading vaccine misinformation.”
However, even Offit conceded the other six appointments “seem reasonable” — though he maintained that the medical community will no longer trust ACIP’s advice.
Critics of Kennedy’s appointments also targeted Martin Kuldorff, Ph.D., a former Harvard epidemiologist, fired for refusing the COVID-19 shot, and co-author of “The Great Barrington Declaration.”
The New York Times called out Levi, who criticized COVID-19 school closures and lockdowns — even though the Times eventually agreed with Levi, after having pushed for those measures during the pandemic.
Levi conducted some of the earliest studies in 2021 on COVID-19 myocarditis safety signals by analyzing national data from Israel. He has called for the mRNA vaccines to be suspended.
In an interview with journalist Maryanne Demasi, Levi responded to the backlash from critics like Offit. “I think the name ‘anti-vaxxer’ is a way to gaslight people,” he said. “There’s nothing uniform about vaccines — either in favour or against vaccines. It’s a medical intervention, and you have to consider the benefits and the risks for each person — there’s no ‘one size fits all.’”
Levi said people who use the term “anti-vaxxer” don’t have good intentions. “It reflects an ideology or a religion rather than science. I just stay focused on the data and what is my best interpretation of those data.”
He said he was “honored and humbled” by the appointment and will do his best to help understand “what the data and science say about vaccines,” to help inform public health.
Original source: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-taps-8-new-acip-members-offit-concedes-most-seem-reasonable/
