RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel to review childhood immunization schedule

ATLANTA - The newly formed vaccine advisory committee handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that it would examine the cumulative effect of the childhood vaccine schedule and reevaluate hepatitis B immunization recommendations - moves that could shift long-standing practices of how and when children are immunized in the United States.

Kennedy, who previously founded an anti-vaccine group, has long called for an investigation into the number of shots children receive. Medical experts say Kennedy has falsely linked an increase in vaccines to a rise of chronic disease, but they note that more vaccines are available now to combat diseases and that his link has no basis in evidence. Medical experts and the federal government recommend the hepatitis B vaccine, saying it prevents the liver disease, which can be passed along at birth.

The announcement of the review of immunization schedules came during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on which vaccines should be recommended, for whom and whether they will be covered by health insurance.

Before the meeting, CDC staff members who work on vaccine safety were informed that Kennedy had appointed Lyn Redwood, a former leader of the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense, to join the CDC’s vaccine safety office, according to one federal health official and three former health officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Redwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the appointment. Andrew Nixon, an HHS spokesman, said he had no immediate comment. Children’s Health Defense CEO Mary Holland previously told The Washington Post that Redwood “has no current role” with the group and was “past president.”

The review of the childhood vaccine schedule and Redwood’s appointment come amid broader concerns over Kennedy’s posture on vaccines and efforts to upend the nation’s decades-old vaccine system.

This month Kennedy abruptly fired every one of the ACIP’s 17 members and replaced them two days later with eight handpicked members. The meeting Wednesday offers the first clues about how the new committee is approaching vaccines after the turnover in membership. Kennedy said Tuesday that two members, both vaccine critics, will co-chair the committee. Only one is listed as a chair on the meeting’s agenda.

To start the meeting, new chair Martin Kulldorff said: “Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine. We’re making vaccine recommendations, and that is what we will do. Vaccines are not all good or bad.”

He added that a working group would look into the cumulative vaccine schedule, as well as “look at vaccines that have not been subject to review in more than seven years.”

Doctors, insurers, pharmacists, and medical and public health groups are closely following ACIP decisions. The committee’s decisions also guide vaccine requirements for school admissions, affect pharmacists’ ability to administer shots and ensure that a government program continues to give free vaccinations to roughly half of children in the United States.

Multiple public health experts expressed alarm over the panel’s new focus.

“It’s critically important to reevaluate vaccine recommendations as science changes - that’s the job of ACIP,” said Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition. “But it’s equally important to do so only when the science actually changes,” not because of “the perspective of an administration or new appointees.”

Health and Human Services officials have said the shift in membership of the CDC vaccine advisory committee is about improving the oversight of the panel.

“Led by establishment insiders, it’s less about integrity and more about salvaging the credibility of a public health bureaucracy that failed millions during the covid-19 pandemic,” Nixon said in a previous statement, referring to the panel’s former makeup. “ACIP will continue to be the statutory authority guiding immunization policy in this country.”

As the first day of the two-day meeting continued, former CDC officials said they were shocked by Redwood’s appointment. Redwood is scheduled to give a presentation to the committee Thursday on thimerosal, a preservative used in some influenza vaccines. Leaders in the anti-vaccine movement claim that its presence is linked to autism, a suggestion that has been repeatedly debunked. Before the meeting, the CDC had posted a document saying that thimerosal was safe. That document has been taken down from the ACIP website.

On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) expressed concern that there was no one at the ACIP meeting slated to present on the “substantial evidence” that the amount of thimerosal used in vaccines is safe.

Fiona Havers, a former senior CDC scientist, said: “Lyn Redwood is not qualified. If she is now being forced upon CDC and will be working from within the Immunization Safety Office, that takes RFK Jr.’s interference with CDC and U.S. vaccine policy to another - even more shocking - level.”

Havers resigned last week because, she said, she no longer had confidence that respiratory data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy. “This is yet another move that will undermine public health, confidence in vaccine safety and give legitimacy to Redwood’s unscientific views.”

The ACIP members are meeting on the same day lawmakers on Capitol Hill are questioning Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CDC. She is facing questions about Kennedy’s purge of the ACIP and his moves to alter the nation’s vaccine policies, posing a split-screen to the Atlanta meeting.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Kennedy’s decision to fire all of the ACIP members called into question his stated commitment to not take action that would discourage the use of vaccines or limit access to them.

She said she hopes the new ACIP members will be “looking at the science in front of them [and] leave their political bias at home.” Murkowski questioned Monarez on how, if confirmed, she would approach filling the remaining panel slots.

“These are not easy positions to fill,” Monarez said, adding, “They need to have a depth and a breadth of technical experience to be able to understand immunological processes, to understand statistical analysis.”

The ACIP panel lost one of its members hours before it was set to meet for the first time Wednesday.

“Dr. Michael Ross decided to withdraw from [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] during the financial holdings review required of members before they can start work on the committee,” Nixon said.

“The sacrifice to serve on ACIP varies from member to member, and we appreciate Dr. Ross’s willingness to go through this rigorous process. We would have benefited from his service and expertise on this committee. The meeting will go as planned, and there will be a quorum.”

The departure is the latest turn after several days of uncertainty after Kennedy’s abrupt firing of the panel.

Ross did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his departure, earlier reported by the New York Times.