A former professor from Harvard Medical School, who asserts that he lost his job due to his refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19, has been selected to join the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization policy advisory panel. Martin Kulldorff, appointed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’76, is one of eight new members replacing approximately half of the previously 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Kulldorff held a faculty position at Harvard and worked as an epidemiologist at Mass General Brigham. He maintains that his public and private opposition to vaccination mandates during the pandemic led to his dismissal from both institutions.
In the latter part of 2020, Kulldorff collaborated with co-authors Sunetra Gupta, an Oxford epidemiologist, and Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya, on a memorandum. This document, which they titled ‘The Great Barrington Declaration,’ posed considerable criticism against institutional lockdown policies prior to vaccine development, contending they would cause ‘irreparable damage’, with the underprivileged bearing much of the burden.
The Great Barrington Declaration suggested that all places of work and learning institutions should entirely reopen to enable the United States to reach ‘herd immunity.’ Herd immunity occurs when a virus stops spreading due to a large segment of the population developing immunity.
Kulldorff not only disputed vaccination mandates on a societal level but also for himself personally. He expressed concerns about the vaccine’s testing process, particularly in relation to his own genetic immune deficiency.
In addition to his personal concerns, Kulldorff argues that his previous infection with Covid-19 in the first part of 2021 had granted him immunity that surpassed what a vaccine could provide. Moreover, he referenced a specific study that suggested mRNA Covid-19 vaccines had not effectively reduced mortality rates.
Despite Secretary Kennedy’s prior assertions that he would not include ‘ideological anti-vaxxers’ in the CDC panel, half of his appointees, including Kulldorff, have shown hesitation towards vaccines. Kennedy has yet to reveal the remaining appointees.
Kennedy’s selection of individuals with a vaccine-skeptic background has led to backlash from professionals specializing in infectious diseases and vaccines. Yet, Kennedy asserts that the process of restructuring the committee will help regain public trust in immunizations.
Kennedy’s decision to let go of the previous members of the committee faced criticism as well. His defense was that these committee members had financial conflicts of interest because of their ties to pharmaceutical companies.
Despite this assertion, there are measures in place to address potential conflicts of interest: committee members are scrupulously screened and are not allowed to participate if they have affiliations with vaccine manufacturers. If conflicts of interest do emerge, these experts are required to make disclosures and remove themselves from relevant discussions.
In his career, Kulldorff has previously lent his expertise to scientific advisory panels for both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration. He currently serves as a fellow at the Academy for Science and Freedom, a think tank located at the conservative Hillsdale College.
In the past, Kulldorff has been involved as an expert witness in a lawsuit, for which he received significant payments. The legal case was mounted against Merck regarding its Gardasil vaccine, intended to protect against various strains of the human papillomavirus, a significant contributing factor to cervical cancer.