Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed every sitting member of the CDC’s top vaccine advisory board and replaced them with a group that includes vocal critics of pandemic-era mandates and COVID-19 vaccine policies.
In a sweeping reset of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Kennedy installed eight new appointees, scrapping the previous 17-member panel entirely. The new lineup includes physicians, researchers, and public health experts—many of whom gained national attention during the pandemic for challenging government lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the rush to mass inoculation.
Among the appointees:
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Dr. Robert Malone, a key developer of mRNA vaccine technology turned vocal critic of COVID vaccine deployment.
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Dr. Martin Kulldorff, former Harvard epidemiologist and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, who championed focused protection and rejected universal lockdowns.
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Retsef Levi, an MIT professor of operations management who publicly called for the suspension of mRNA vaccines, citing safety concerns.
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Dr. Cody Meissner, a respected pediatric infectious disease specialist who opposed mandates for children and has urged more caution around youth vaccination.
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Joseph R. Hibbeln, Michael A. Ross, James Pagano, and Vicky Pebsworth, all known for their work in medical ethics, pharmacology, or community health, round out the board.
The timing of the overhaul is significant. The new ACIP is set to convene June 25, with an agenda that includes reevaluating the COVID shot’s place on the routine childhood immunization schedule and reviewing VAERS data surrounding adverse reactions to multiple vaccines. Kennedy’s move is widely seen as a challenge to the pharmaceutical industry’s longstanding influence over federal health guidance.
Kennedy defended the shake-up as long overdue. “We need independent experts who are not beholden to pharmaceutical funding or political pressure,” he said in a statement. “This is about restoring public trust and ensuring that vaccine recommendations are driven by transparent science, not lobbying.”
Supporters of the new panel argue that Kennedy is delivering on his promise to clean house and rethink health policy from the ground up. They see this as a correction to years of consensus-driven decision-making that left little room for scrutiny—even as real-world data evolved.
But critics, including several former ACIP members and allied health organizations, are sounding alarms. They argue the new appointees lack current immunization program experience and accuse Kennedy of politicizing science by filling key posts with dissenters rather than immunology specialists.
“There’s a difference between healthy skepticism and anti-scientific obstructionism,” said one public health official. “The fear is that this new panel will stall or reverse progress on vaccine uptake—not just for COVID, but for measles, polio, and other critical immunizations.”
The stakes are high. ACIP’s recommendations help shape vaccine schedules for more than 80 million Americans, from infants to seniors. Their rulings directly influence school entry requirements, insurance coverage, and federal health program distribution.
This overhaul marks a defining moment for Kennedy’s tenure at HHS—and a sign that his commitment to reforming U.S. public health policy isn’t just rhetorical. It’s structural, sweeping, and already rewriting the rules from the inside out.