RFK Jr.'s newest CDC vaccine panel includes critics of COVID shots, lockdowns

RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine panel

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee. LiveNOW's Andrew Craft breaks it down with Politico's Lauren Gardner.

NEW YORK - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week.

His selections include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and transformed into a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, and a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns.

RELATED: RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine panel

Kennedy made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday.

RFK ousts vaccine panel 

The backstory:

Kennedy's decision to "retire" the previous 17-member panel was widely decried by doctors' groups and public health organizations, who feared the advisers would be replaced by a group aligned with Kennedy's desire to reassess — and possibly end — longstanding vaccination recommendations.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Capitol Hill on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Who is now on the panel?

Dig deeper:

The new appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices include Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak.

COVID shots no longer recommended by CDC for kids

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says CDC no longer recommends COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children or pregnant women. The move was announced via a video on X without CDC officials present. A CDC advisory panel was set to vote in June on updated vaccine guidance.

Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as he relayed conspiracy theories around the outbreak and the vaccines that followed. He has appeared on podcasts and other conservative news outlets where he’s promoted unproven and alternative treatments for measles and COVID-19.

He has claimed that millions of Americans were hypnotized into taking the COVID-19 shots. He’s even suggested that those vaccines cause a form of AIDS. He’s downplayed deaths related to one of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. in years.

Other appointees include Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing irreparable harm. Dr. Cody Meissner, a former ACIP member, also was named.

Big picture view:

The committee, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC directors almost always approve those recommendations on how Food and Drug Administration-cleared vaccines should be used. The CDC’s final recommendations are widely heeded by doctors and determine the scope of vaccination programs.