RFK Jr reveals his plan for vaccine committee after he fired entire panel sparking ‘anti-vaxxers’ concern

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has revealed that he doesn’t plan on placing “anti-vaxxers” on a federal vaccine policy advisory committee after removing all its previous members, sparking concerns about who he may appoint next.

“None of these individuals will be ideological anti-vaxxers,” Kennedy wrote in a long post on X. “They will be highly credentialed physicians and scientists who will make extremely consequential public health determinations by applying evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense.”

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations on the use of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kennedy said he would announce the new members of the panel in the coming days and that they will be in place before the committee’s next meeting, set for June 25. The X post came about a day after he removed all 17 members of the committee, signaling a dramatic change in American vaccine policy.

Kennedy, who ran as a Democrat and then as an independent in the 2024 presidential election before dropping out and endorsing Trump, has become known as an anti-vaccine activist. He has made a number of false claims about the damage vaccines can do, such as the measles shot being connected to autism.

The secretary claimed that removing all members of the panel was necessary to restore trust in vaccines as well as the CDC.

Kennedy attempted to argue on Tuesday night that there had been “historical corruption” at the committee.

“The most outrageous example of ACIP’s malevolent malpractice has been its stubborn unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials before recommending new vaccines for our children,” Kennedy claimed.

The secretary tried to connect childhood vaccines that “modify the immune system” to an “epidemic of autoimmune diseases” and suggested that vaccine makers don’t test their vaccines for safety because they’re not part of placebo-controlled trials.

“No one can scientifically ascertain whether these products are averting more problems than they are causing,” said Kennedy.

Former CDC Director Dr. Tomas Frieden told PBS News, “We’re already seeing a decreased immunization rate.”

“When Secretary Kennedy says he wants to restore trust, the fact is that his activities over many years have been one of the main reasons there are questions about vaccines,” he added.

Frieden argued that lower vaccination rates will lead to struggles to control measles, which he noted was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.

“We’re now having more cases and more deaths than we have had in many years, and whooping cough, which is increasing,” he said.

The former CDC director told PBS News that Kennedy is “undermining and stopping a process that has been transparent, effective, and fact-based, and replacing it with we don’t know what, but based on untrue statements, misinformation, and, frankly, fringe beliefs.”