{"id":29328,"date":"2025-06-09T21:14:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29328"},"modified":"2025-06-09T21:24:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:24:24","slug":"rfk-jr-removes-all-c-d-c-vaccine-panel-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29328","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. Removes All C.D.C. Vaccine Panel Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.S. health secretary chose to \u201cretire\u201d members of a committee that makes significant decisions about who receives immunizations, including the vaccines for children.<\/p>\n

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The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Monday retired all 17 members of an advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing that the move would restore the public\u2019s trust in vaccines.<\/p>\n

He made the announcement on Monday in an opinion column<\/a> for The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

The C.D.C.\u2019s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data on vaccines, debate the evidence and vote on who should get the shots and when. Insurance companies are required to cover the vaccines recommended by the panel.<\/p>\n

This is the latest in a series of moves Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has made to drastically reshape policy on immunizations. A vaccine panel more closely aligned with Mr. Kennedy\u2019s views has the potential to significantly alter the immunizations recommended to Americans, including childhood vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kennedy said the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, \u201chas been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has previously claimed that 97 percent of ACIP members had financial conflicts of interest. But the statistic came from a 2009 report<\/a>, and a review found that 97 percent of the disclosure forms had errors<\/a>, such as missing dates or information in the wrong section, not significant financial conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think R.F.K. Jr is a conspiracy theorist, and that\u2019s what this document is about,\u201d said Dr. Paul Offit, who serves as an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the undue influence from Big Pharma,\u201d Dr. Offit said. \u201cThis is a message that he has been putting out there for the last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, ACIP members are carefully screened for major conflicts of interest, and they cannot hold stocks or serve on advisory boards or speaker bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On the rare occasion that members have indirect conflicts of interest \u2014 for example, if an institution at which they work receives money from a drug manufacturer \u2014 they disclose the conflict and recuse themselves from related votes.<\/p>\n

As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Kennedy has the authority to add or remove members of the panel. Without removing the current members, the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028, he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. health secretary chose to \u201cretire\u201d members of a committee that makes significant decisions about who receives immunizations, including the vaccines for children.The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Monday retired all 17 members of an advisory committee on immunization to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arguing that the move would restore the public\u2019s trust in vaccines.He made the announcement on Monday in an opinion column for The Wall Street Journal.The C.D.C.\u2019s vaccine advisers wield enormous influence. They carefully review data on vaccines, debate the evidence and vote on who should get the shots and when. Insurance companies are required to cover the vaccines recommended by the panel.This is the latest in a series of moves Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, has made to drastically reshape policy on immunizations. A vaccine panel more closely aligned with Mr. Kennedy\u2019s views has the potential to significantly alter the immunizations recommended to Americans, including childhood vaccinations.Mr. Kennedy said the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, \u201chas been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest.\u201d\u201cThe public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will ensure the American people receive the safest vaccines possible.\u201dHe has previously claimed that 97 percent of ACIP members had financial conflicts of interest. But the statistic came from a 2009 report, and a review found that 97 percent of the disclosure forms had errors, such as missing dates or information in the wrong section, not significant financial conflicts.\u201cI think R.F.K. Jr is a conspiracy theorist, and that\u2019s what this document is about,\u201d said Dr. Paul Offit, who serves as an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.\u201cIt\u2019s about the undue influence from Big Pharma,\u201d Dr. Offit said. \u201cThis is a message that he has been putting out there for the last 20 years.\u201dIn fact, ACIP members are carefully screened for major conflicts of interest, and they cannot hold stocks or serve on advisory boards or speaker bureaus affiliated with vaccine manufacturers.On the rare occasion that members have indirect conflicts of interest \u2014 for example, if an institution at which they work receives money from a drug manufacturer \u2014 they disclose the conflict and recuse themselves from related votes.As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Kennedy has the authority to add or remove members of the panel. Without removing the current members, the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028, he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29330,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29331,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29328\/revisions\/29331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}