Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday he’s naming eight new advisers to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations committee, after firing the committee’s entire previous roster of 17 advisers.
“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense. They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations,” Kennedy said Wednesday in a post on X.
Kennedy’s picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary’s approval.
The panel’s influential recommendations are closely watched because they are directly tied to federal policies, like which vaccines insurers are required to cover.
The picks announced by Kennedy include some close allies of the secretary and his inner circle. Several have a history of criticizing vaccine recommendations or questioning their safety.
Dr. Robert Malone
One of them, Dr. Robert Malone, worked on early research related to mRNA vaccine technology but was accused during the COVID-19 pandemic of spreading misinformation about the mRNA vaccines. He was with Kennedy and President Trump at the Trump election night celebration in Florida.
“On the basis of data from all over the world, approximately three years ago it was my impression that the risk/benefit ratio of these products did not merit continued use in any cohort,” Malone posted last month on his Substack about the mRNA COVID vaccines.
Like Kennedy, Malone has questioned the benefits of measles vaccines during the recent record outbreak in Texas, which killed two children, and he has promoted unproven treatments for the virus.
Dr. Martin Kulldorff
Another member picked by Kennedy is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who co-authored the pandemic-era Great Barrington Declaration criticizing COVID-19 restrictions, along with now-NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya has described Kulldorff as a close friend.
Kulldorff previously worked with the CDC’s outside vaccine advisers, before authoring an opinion piece in 2021 criticizing the agency’s decision to pause use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine over safety concerns.
He claimed he was fired from working with the committee over the opinion piece. Kulldorff later claimed he was fired from Harvard University for criticizing COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
Dr. Cody Meissner
Dr. Cody Meissner, a pediatrics professor who previously served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s own vaccines panel — the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee – was also named to the committee.
Meissner opposed COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children. He also co-authored an opinion piece with now-FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary speaking out against masking of children during the pandemic.
Vicky Pebsworth, Ph.D., R.N.
Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses, was also a former member of the FDA vaccines panel.
Pebsworth spoke at a 2020 meeting of the FDA vaccines committee, where she identified herself as the research director for the National Vaccine Information Center and “mother of a child injured by his 15-month well-baby shots in 1998.” She said the center’s position was that any “coercion and sanctions to persuade adults to take an experimental vaccine, or give it to their children, is unethical and unlawful.”
Retsef Levi, Ph.D.
Kennedy also praised another pick, MIT professor Retsef Levi, saying: “Dr. Levi has collaborated with public health agencies to evaluate vaccine safety, including co-authoring studies on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and their association with cardiovascular risks.”
Levi previously called for more detailed data from the COVID-19 vaccine trials, suggesting that changes to how Pfizer’s shot was produced may have caused side effects.
But Levi faced criticism for a paper co-authored with Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, which was cited in the state’s move to recommend that young men not get mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Experts condemned the paper for misleading methods that could inflate the risk.
Dr. Michael A. Ross
Kennedy said Dr. Michael A. Ross “contributed to national strategies for cancer prevention and early detection, including those involving HPV immunization,” working with the CDC’s breast and cervical cancer committee.
Ross is described by Kennedy as an obstetrics and gynecology professor at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, though his name does not appear on directories for either university. Spokespeople for the two institutions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The investment firm Havencrest Capital Management lists Ross as a partner, and says he previously worked as an executive for India-based drugmaker Cadila Pharmaceutical.
Dr. James Pagano
Dr. James Pagano, described by Kennedy as a “strong advocate for evidence-based medicine,” has published two fiction titles about hospital medicine, but little about vaccines or medicine.
“Over the course of his medical career he has worked in a number of emergency departments in the greater L.A. area, including major trauma centers as well as smaller community hospitals. He has been the medical director of one ER or another for many years,” describes an Amazon listing for one of his books in 2012.
Records from the Medical Board of California list Pagano as being retired.
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln
Another Kennedy pick, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, retired from the National Institutes of Health in 2020. His research portfolio previously covered nutritional intake of fatty acids like omega-3. Kennedy described him as bringing “expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies.”
Kennedy’s monthslong search for new members
Kennedy’s picks cap a monthslong search that the secretary and his aides have conducted for replacements to the committee.
Former CDC official Jeffrey Klausner, a professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine, said he was among those approached for suggestions early this year.
Klausner criticized Kennedy’s pick of Malone, calling him a “a well-known promoter of various conspiracy theories and was advocating for use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID.”
“Seems like his appointment is not consistent with some of Secretary Kennedy’s public commitments,” Klausner said.
Kennedy told reporters on Monday that he was picking “highly credentialed” experts for the panel.
“We’re going to bring people onto the ACIP panel, not anti-vaxxers, who are bringing people on who are credentialed scientists, who are highly credentialed physicians, who are going to do evidence-based medicine,” he said.
In an “FAQ” document shared with stakeholder groups, HHS said the department intended “to ensure balanced membership in terms of the points of view represented.”