RFK Jr. includes vaccine misinformation spreaders among newly announced ACIP members
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday announced the new members of a key vaccine advisory committee, just days after he fired all sitting members in what he called 'a clean sweep.'
The eight new voting members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices represent a significant downsizing from the 17 who previously served.
Kennedy in a post on X said the new members will meet as scheduled on June 25 to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine. They will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well, he said.
'The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America's most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' he added.
The eight new ACIP members announced by Kennedy are:
Kennedy on Tuesday said that none of the new ACIP members will be 'ideological anti-vaxxers' but some of the new members are well-known COVID-19 contrarians and are known for spreading vaccine misinformation.
Malone, who claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccines despite what those who've worked with him say, became a fixture of conservative media during the pandemic. He promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for treating the coronavirus, and repeatedly claimed the COVID shots did not work.
Kulldorff was one the leading authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, along with current NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.
Kennedy fired all 17 sitting members of the ACIP for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday, claiming a 'clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.'
The ACIP is an independent, expert panel that provides guidance on vaccine recommendations. The sweeping, abrupt firing of all sitting ACIP members this week was met with alarm and concern, with groups like the American Nurses Association saying it could further 'erode public confidence' in vaccines.
The move also directly contradicted an assurance that Kennedy had given to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, when he said he would 'maintain the [ACIP] without changes.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Three R.I. health insurers pay over $1 million in fines for lapses in COVID coverage
Three Rhode Island health insurers were fined for charging patients out-of-pocket costs for pandemic-related care, such as emergency room care, doctor visits, and hospital stays, that should have been fully covered, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner said. (Getty image) UnitedHealthcare paid $1 million and two Rhode Island health insurers paid lesser fines for violating state rules for health coverage of COVID-19 services. Health Insurance Commissioner Cory King announced Thursday that his office had finished collecting fines charged to UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) and Aetna. The insurers were penalized for charging patients out-of-pocket costs for pandemic-related care, such as emergency room care, doctor visits, and hospital stays — services that should have been fully covered under a 2021 rule promulgated by Patrick Tigue, King's predecessor in the the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC). UnitedHealthcare incurred the heaviest fine while Blue Cross and Aetna were fined $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. Consent decrees for the insurance companies stipulated payment was due for UnitedHealthcare and Aetna on June 2, while Blue Cross needed to pay up by June 6. King said Thursday that the final payment was made last week. 'OHIC expects health insurance companies to comply with the law,' King wrote in an email. 'When they do not, they must take corrective actions and face consequences.' The fines accumulated from July 3, 2021, when the rule was formalized into general law, through May 11, 2023, when Rhode Island's cost waiver rule expired and the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ended. The cost waiver, however, only applied to fully insured plans, or coverage plans purchased by employers in which the insurer assumes the financial responsibility and risk. The cost mandate did not apply to people receiving services under self-insured plans — the kind of coverage often purchased by larger companies and held by about 60% of covered Rhode Islanders. The three consent decrees OHIC released Thursday detail the scope of violations and how the insurers fixed their billing problems. UnitedHealthcare's hefty $1 million fine derived from 1,545 claims in which Rhode Island plan members were wrongly charged for COVID-related care. In 2023, the company reprocessed the claims and refunded roughly $270,000 to affected members. 'We are pleased to have resolved this issue with the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner,' Bradley J. Alexander, a spokesperson for United, said in an email Thursday. 'We remain focused on helping individuals access care while supporting our employees, our network of care providers, our clients and the communities we serve.' The Blue Cross case was less straightforward. The insurer had already waived cost-sharing for COVID treatment in April 2020, according to spokesperson Rich Salit. 'BCBSRI's cost-share waiver applied to all in-network services and out-of-network services received outside of Rhode Island,' Salit wrote. 'For services in Rhode Island, BCBSRI was encouraging members to seek care from our broad network, as members going out-of-network could still be exposed to provider balance billing.' Balance billing is when out-of-network providers charge patients for what insurance didn't pay. According to the consent decree, Blue Cross believed its policy complied with the OHIC statute, at first indicating 'that it was not waiving cost sharing on services related to the treatment of COVID-19 if such services were provided by out-of-network providers within Rhode Island.' Nevertheless, OHIC did not agree with that interpretation, penalized the company for not covering the out-of-network care in 19 claims. Blue Cross was required to pay $1,751.60 in refunds, plus the $20,000 fine. Salit said the claims came from eight plan members. 'BCBSRI agreed to reimburse the cost sharing those members incurred and updated its policy, and the matter was resolved,' Salit wrote. Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS, only had three claims flagged under the OHIC rule. 'We are pleased this agreement resolves issues with the OHIC related to three (3) Aetna claims, which we reprocessed in 2022,' Phillip J. Blando, an Aetna spokesperson, wrote via email. The penalty money goes into the state's general fund, according to OHIC. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
CIA Denies Prior Knowledge Of Sirhan Sirhan In Newly Declassified RFK Assassination Files
The CIA claims it had no knowledge of Sirhan Sirhan before the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, according to newly declassified files released Thursday. The documents—part of a tranche ordered released by President Donald Trump, upon resuming office in January—include an internal 'blind memo' dated October 31, 1975. The memo states that 'Sirhan Sirhan's security file reflects that he had never been of interest to the Agency prior to the assassination of Robert Kennedy.' Kennedy was gunned down shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, moments after delivering a victory speech in the California Democratic primary. Sirhan, then 24, was arrested at the scene and later convicted of murder. But the newly released CIA files shed light on the agency's role in the aftermath—and raise fresh questions about what they knew and when. According to the memo, on the day of the shooting, various organs within the CIA were tasked with collecting information on Sirhan. The memo says this information—largely background material obtained through U.S. visa records and foreign CIA stations—was quietly funneled to the LAPD via the agency's Los Angeles Field Office. The LAPD reportedly agreed that all such material would remain confidential and unattributed to the CIA. By June 11, 1968, LAPD Chief Thomas Reddin had created a 23-person task force to handle the Kennedy investigation. The CIA's Los Angeles chief, William Curtin, liaised directly with the LAPD's Captain Hugh Brown, sharing intelligence, including information on Sirhan's family and possible associates. According to the memo, the CIA also performed traces on names linked to Sirhan but found nothing indicating ties to terrorist groups. The CIA asserts in the memo that Sirhan's file does not reflect that the agency had any prior interest in him and that its assistance to the LAPD 'was [never] surfaced in any way.' If true, this disclosure eliminates one long-held theory about CIA foreknowledge or involvement in Kennedy's assassination. However, it leaves untouched broader doubts surrounding the case—many of which continue to divide even the Kennedy family. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now Secretary of Health and Human Services, has long maintained that Sirhan did not fire the fatal shot. 'Sirhan is not my father's killer,' Kennedy Jr. wrote in a 2021 op-ed, pointing instead to private security guard Thane Eugene Cesar, who was positioned behind Kennedy and was never charged. Kennedy Jr.'s views have been sharply contested by most of his siblings, including his late mother, Ethel Kennedy, who said in 2021 that Sirhan should 'not have the opportunity to terrorize again.' Ethel Kennedy died in October 2024 at age 96. The release of today's files—part of a broader declassification effort involving the assassinations of both Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—also revives the voice of labor leader Paul Schrade, a confidant of RFK, who was wounded during the shooting. Schrade, who died in 2022, spent decades arguing for a new investigation, citing forensic evidence that suggested 13 shots were fired—more than the eight bullets in Sirhan's revolver. Kennedy Jr. pointed out that Sirhan fired the 8 shots while standing in front of his target. The first hit Schrade. The second missed Kennedy's father and was later extracted by LAPD from a nearby door jam. The other six shots came after Sirhan was tackled and hit bystanders. However, Kennedy's father was shot four times from behind. He believes these bullets came from Cesar, a new security guard who Kennedy says had extensive ties to America's largest defense contractors. Author and Researcher Lisa Pease has repeatedly stated that she obtained records that indicate Cesar was a CIA contractor. In a 2012 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, Kennedy Jr. echoed Schrade's concerns and called for a reinvestigation. 'After years of careful investigation, I arrived at the conviction that the story of my father's murder was not as cut and dried as portrayed at trial,' he wrote. Some documents previously declassified also include photos of handwritten notes allegedly found in Sirhan's bedroom. One line reads: 'My determination to remove RFK is becoming more and more of an unshakeable obsession.' Despite those notes, Sirhan, now 81, continues to maintain that he has no memory of the shooting. His claims, coupled with lingering doubts about ballistics, autopsy evidence, and witness testimony, have kept skeptics' theories alive for more than half a century.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lawmakers decide which bills worth negotiating and kill the rest
On a day when the House and Senate created negotiating committees to try and salvage 50 bills, they voted to summarily kill about 15 others after concluding that compromise was unlikely to be reached on them. A major reform bill (SB 297) that hit the cutting room floor Thursday was the pitched battle between Secretary of State David Scanlan and HealthTrust, the state's largest risk pool, over whether Scanlan should get enhanced power to regulate these groups that manage insurance plans for units of government. Last week, the House of Representatives rejected Scanlan's reforms in favor of an amendment that would have let the groups decide whether to come under the regulation of Scanlan's office or the Insurance Department. Without debate, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Dan Innis, R-Bradford, asked the Senate to 'non-concur' on the House changes and the Senate did on a voice vote which killed the measure. Scanlan said killing the bill made sense. "I am pleased the Senate voted to non-concur on the House amended version of SB 297. What began as an attempt to improve the transparency and accountability of pooled risk organizations entrusted with $750 million taxpayer dollars became an attempt by one risk pool to move to a regulatory environment favorable to them without addressing the underlying concerns," Scanlan said in a statement. Ivermectin bill rejected The Senate also decided to reject out of hand a controversial House-passed proposal (SB 119) to allow any doctor or pharmacist to provide ivermectin to any patient without a prescription. Ivermectin was created as a drug to treat parasites for animals but in the past decade it proved to be a prize-winning medication to treat humans for similar conditions. During COVID-19, the drug became a viral sensation for many Americans who used it to respond to the virus. House Democratic Floor Leader Lucy Weber of Walpole had argued against giving ivermectin the special status of having a 'standing order' for any patient. She noted the only medications that have that designation are EpiPens that treat allergic reactions, smoking prevention drugs and some forms of contraception. This was the main reason that former Gov. Chris Sununu gave when he vetoed a similar bill to this one. Rep. Yuri Polozov, R-Hooksett, said he pursued the bill because during the pandemic many medical providers were ostracized or even sanctioned for prescribing ivermectin. Many other bills were also killed because sections that legislators still wanted to survive had been tacked onto another bill. In this case, the original bill the House amended to favor ivermectin was expected to save the state up to $9 million a year to allow health care providers to prescribe brand name drugs in the Medicaid program if they have discounts or rebates that make these medications cheaper to purchase. The state Senate tacked that provision onto the trailer bill of its state budget. In a similar vein, the Senate on Thursday killed a bill (SB 60) dealing with legalized gambling that would have taken from state regulators and given to the Legislature the authority to write rules regarding immunization requirements. The House had already tacked that section onto the version of its own budget trailer bill. Another bill (SB 100) that died Thursday was meant to alter a 2021 ban on teaching discrimination in public schools to respond to a federal judge's ruling that struck it down as unconstitutionally too vague. The House-passed language would require a showing that the educator 'knowingly' was advocating bias in his or her teachings. Some socially conservative groups that supported the law had warned lawmakers that the House bill only addressed a small part of the legal flaws with the existing law. The Senate also rejected a House-passed bill that would have created a court docket to resolve disputes over so-called blockchain currencies such as bitcoin (SB 25). klandrigan@
