Latest news with #DrRobertMalone
Associated Press
20 hours ago
- Health
- Associated Press
Kennedy's new CDC panel includes members who have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management. Kennedy's decision to 'retire' the previous 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices 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. On Tuesday, before he announced his picks, Kennedy said: 'We're going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel – not anti-vaxxers – bringing people on who are credentialed scientists.' The new appointees include Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses. She has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation. Another is Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to prominence 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 and has 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. Malone told The Associated Press he will do his best 'to serve with unbiased objectivity and rigor.' 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. Abram Wagner of the University of Michigan's school of public health, who investigates vaccination programs, said he's not satisfied with the composition of the committee. 'The previous ACIP was made up of technical experts who have spent their lives studying vaccines,' he said. Most people on the current list 'don't have the technical capacity that we would expect out of people who would have to make really complicated decisions involving interpreting complicated scientific data.' He said having Pebsworth on the board is 'incredibly problematic' since she is involved in an organization that 'distributes a lot of misinformation.' Kennedy made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday. 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 vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The CDC's final recommendations are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs. The other appointees are: —Dr. James Hibbeln, who formerly headed a National Institutes of Health group focused on nutritional neurosciences and who studies how nutrition affects the brain, including the potential benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy. —Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies business issues related to supply chain, logistics, pricing optimization and health and health care management. In a 2023 video pinned to an X profile under his name, Levi called for the end of the COVID-19 vaccination program, claiming the vaccines were ineffective and dangerous despite evidence they saved millions of lives. Levi told the AP he would try to help inform 'public health policies with data and science, with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of people and regain the public trust.' —Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician from Los Angeles. —Dr. Michael Ross, a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist who previously served on a CDC breast and cervical cancer advisory committee. He is described as a 'serial CEO and physician leader' in a bio for Havencrest Capital Management, a private equity investment firm where he is an operating partner. Of the eight named by Kennedy, perhaps the most experienced in vaccine policy is Meissner, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who has previously served as a member of both ACIP and the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel. During his five-year term as an FDA adviser, the committee was repeatedly asked to review and vote on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that were rapidly developed to fight the pandemic. In September 2021, he joined the majority of panelists who voted against a plan from the Biden administration to offer an extra vaccine dose to all American adults. The panel instead recommended that the extra shot should be limited to seniors and those at higher risk of the disease. Ultimately, the FDA disregarded the panel's recommendation and OK'd an extra vaccine dose for all adults. In addition to serving on government panels, Meissner has helped author policy statements and vaccination schedules for the American Academy of Pediatrics. ACIP members typically serve in staggered four-year terms, although several appointments were delayed during the Biden administration before positions were filled last year. The voting members are all supposed to have scientific or clinical expertise in immunization, except for one 'consumer representative' who can bring perspective on community and social facets of vaccine programs. Kennedy, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official, has accused the committee of being too closely aligned with vaccine manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. ACIP policies require members to state past collaborations with vaccine companies and to recuse themselves from votes in which they had a conflict of interest, but Kennedy has dismissed those safeguards as weak. Most of the people who best understand vaccines are those who have researched them, which usually requires some degree of collaboration with the companies that develop and sell them, said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. 'If you are to exclude any reputable, respected vaccine expert who has ever engaged even in a limited way with the vaccine industry, you're likely to have a very small pool of folks to draw from,' Schwartz said. The U.S. Senate confirmed Kennedy in February after he promised he would not change the vaccination schedule. But less than a week later, he vowed to investigate childhood vaccines that prevent measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. Kennedy has ignored some of the recommendations ACIP voted for in April, including the endorsement of a new combination shot that protects against five strains of meningococcal bacteria and the expansion of vaccinations against RSV. In late May, Kennedy disregarded the committee and announced the government would change the recommendation for children and pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots. On Monday, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the ACIP, saying he would appoint a new group before the next scheduled meeting in late June. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been posted, but a recent federal notice said votes are expected on vaccinations against flu, COVID-19, HPV, RSV and meningococcal bacteria. A HHS spokesman did not respond to a question about whether there would be only eight ACIP members, or whether more will be named later. ___ Associated Press reporters Matthew Perrone, Amanda Seitz, Devi Shastri and Laura Ungar contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
Meet the vaccines skeptics that are now part of RFK Jr.'s vaccine approval committee
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has announced new members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel. Earlier in the week, the secretary made waves when he purged all 17 former members, citing 'historical corruption at ACIP.' '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,' he wrote in a post on X. In their place, Kennedy hand picked eight members, who he said were individuals 'committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense' and who wouldn't be 'ideological anti-vaxxers.' He noted that each of them have committed to 'demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations' and that the committee would review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule. But, the moves have been concerning to experts, who noted that several members have been critical of vaccines. The fired panel members have said that their ousting signaled that scientific expertise was 'no longer of use' under Kennedy and that that decision would 'undermine public trust in the vaccine process,' in a time when vaccine hesitancy has led to the spread of measles and other disease. So, who are the new members Kennedy says will help to restore that trust? Here's what and who to know... Dr. Robert W. Malone Dr. Robert Malone is a former mRNA researcher who has been a close advisory to Kennedy. Kennedy said he has served in advisory roles for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. He earned a medical degree from Northwestern University in 1991 and has taught at the University of California at Davis and the University of Maryland. He runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, and has been active on social media and in various outlets. He rose to prominence during the pandemic, relaying conspiracy theories about the vaccines and Covid. He has promoted alternative treatments for the virus and measles. He's claimed that millions of Americans were hypnotized into taking the shots and suggested that the vaccines cause a form of AIDS. Malone said in a post on X that he will do his best "to serve with unbiased objectivity and rigor.' 'I have attended many, many ACIP meetings in the past on behalf of clients. I played a key role in enabling advanced development of the Merck Ebola vaccine. I have deep expertise and experience in influenza vaccines and vaccine manufacturing technology, and have spoken on this issue at the WHO by invitation,' he said. Dr. Martin Kulldorff Dr. Martin Kulldorff is a biostatistician and epidemiologist. He's a founding member of the D.C.-based Academy for Science and Freedom at the nonsectarian Christian Hillsdale College. The academy aims to 'combat the recent and widespread abuses of individual and academic freedom made in the name of science' and 'educate the American people about the 'free exchange of scientific ideas and the proper relationship between freedom and science in the pursuit of truth.' Formerly a professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Kulldorf wrote in an op-ed that telling the 'truth' had gotten him fired. 'Bodily autonomy is not the only argument against Covid vaccine mandates. They are also unscientific and unethical,' wrote Kulldorff. On LinkedIn, he has said the National Institute of Health had failed Americans during the pandemic. Notably, he was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, along with NIH head Jay Bhattacharya, which was an October 2020 letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing harm. He has posted on X in support of the positions of Kennedy, Bhattacharya, and new FDA Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Dr. Vinay Prasad. Kennedy said Kulldorff has served on the Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and the CDC's Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He noted Kulldorff also developed widely used tools such as SaTScan and TreeScan for detecting disease outbreaks and vaccine adverse events, and said he was an advocate for 'evidence-based approaches to pandemic response.' On Thursday, Endpoints News reported that Kulldorff and Malone were paid hundreds of dollars an hour to be a part of cases challenging the safety and efficacy of drugmaker Merck's HPV and MMR shots. Malone confirmed he had done 'expert witness consultation.' A request for comment from Kulldorff was not immediately returned. Dr. Retsef Levi Dr. Retsef Levi is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also serves as the faculty leader for Food Chain Supply Analytics. Prior to working at MIT, he spent nearly 12 years as an officer in the Intelligence Wing of the Israeli Defense Forces. An MIT bio page for Levi says he leads several industry-based collaborative research efforts with local hospitals and that he has been on contract to address risk related to 'economically motivated adulterations of food manufactured in global supply chains.' His pinned tweet claims that mRNA vaccines 'cause serious harm including death, especially among young people.' 'We have to stop giving them immediately!' he urged. 'From what I've seen so far, I think it's obvious that these mRNA vaccines should not be given to anybody young or healthy. It is also not at all clear to me that they should be given to anybody, based on the evidence,' he said in a new interview. 'I am honored with this opportunity and humbled by the responsibility,' he wrote. Vicky Pebsworth A registered nurse and a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, Vicky Pebsworth has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group previously described in The Washington Post as ' the oldest anti-vaccine advocacy group ' in the country. She earned a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan. She has worked in the health care field in various capacities for more than 45 years. She is a former member of the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group and Vaccine Safety Working Group (Epidemiology and Implementation Subcommittees), according to Kennedy. 'Her son — her only child — experienced serious, long-term health problems following receipt of seven live virus and killed bacterial vaccines administered during his 15-month well-baby visit which sparked her interest in vaccine safety research and policymaking and chronic illness and disability in children,' a bio page for her says. But, there are others on the panel whose vaccine stances aren't as clear. Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln Dr. Joseph Hibbeln has worked at the National Institutes of Health since the late 1990s. He formerly served as the Acting Chief of of the Section on Nutritional Neurosciences. He is also a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, with work focused on how nutrition affects the brain, including the potential benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy. He attended the University of Chicago for his undergraduate degree and received his medical degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1988. He served his residency at UCLA in 1992. He serves as a Captain in the United States Public Health Service. Recently, he wrote to ask another LinkedIn user about their position regarding 'closing nearly all vaccine research' at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Cody Meissner Dr. Cody Meissner is a former member of the committee and a professor of pediatrics at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine. He is the Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Tufts Children's Hospital and has served as a member of the Human Health and Services (HHS) Tick-borne Diseases Working Group. He has been the principal investigator for numerous vaccine clinical trials and the HHS Chair of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. He's held an advisory role at the Food and Drug Administration. Florida Republican Governor Ron Santis has quoted him as saying that closing schools during the Covid pandemic had 'aggravated the issue of inequity in our society.' Dr. James Pagano Dr. James Pagano is an emergency medicine physician with more than 40 years of clinical experience. He also did his residency at UCLA. 'Dr. Pagano served on multiple hospital committees, including utilization review, critical care, and medical executive boards. He is strong advocate for evidence-based medicine,' Kennedy said. Dr. Michael A. Ross Dr. Michael Ross is a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist who previously served on a CDC breast and cervical cancer advisory committee. He is described as a 'serial CEO and physician leader' in a bio page for Havencrest Capital Management, a private equity investment firm where he is an operating partner. He recently started a position as the chief medical officer for the Maryland-based AI start-up Manta Pharma. He is a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. 'He has advised major professional organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and contributed to federal advocacy efforts around women's health and preventive care. His continued service on biotech and healthcare boards reflects his commitment to advancing innovation in immunology, reproductive medicine, and public health,' Kennedy said.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Health
- Telegraph
RFK Jr appoints new vaccine committee – including vaccine sceptic doctor
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed a new vaccine advisory panel, including a medical doctor who has claimed that Covid vaccines 'may damage [children's] brains, their heart, their immune system, and their ability to have children in the future.' The move comes just two days after the US health secretary unprecedentedly dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the body responsible for advising on vaccine recommendations to prevent and control diseases. Of the eight new members, four have actively spoken out against vaccination in some form. The most controversial pick is Dr Robert Malone, a prominent opponent of mRNA vaccines who also falsely claims to have invented the technology. While Dr Malone was involved in some of the early research on mRNA, his role was minimal at best, say experts. Dr Malone has previously stated that mass vaccination programs during the pandemic were enabled by 'mass formation psychosis,' an unrecognised medical term he coined, which he says also explains how Nazi Germany carried out the Holocaust. He was temporarily banned from X (formerly Twitter) for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, including claims that mRNA vaccines are experimental gene therapy that could cause irreparable harm, particularly to children. Also on the panel is Dr Martin Kulldorff, a former Harvard Medical School professor who was dismissed from his position in 2024. Dr Kulldorff was a key figure in the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter published in 2020 that opposed widespread lockdowns and was widely criticised by experts as dangerous and anti-scientific. Of the panel, which includes Joseph Hibbeln, Retsef Levi, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth and Michael Rossm, four who have previously worked on committees associated with either the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or the Food and Drug Administration. 'All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' Mr Kennedy said in a post on X. It's not clear what process these figures went through, but it typically takes more than a year to be appointed to a federal advisory panel. Dr Noel Brewer, a professor in public health at the University of North Carolina who was a member of the ACIP, said it typically takes more than a year to be appointed as a member of a federal advisory panel – and that he went through a 1.5 year process to serve on ACIP. 'You apply by writing an essay,' he told the Telegraph. 'Once you're approved, you fill out maybe 20 or 30 forms. You disclose all of your financial stakes in companies and all sources of income. Then you get ethics training.' The health secretary added that the panel would attend a CDC meeting on June 25, where advisors are expected to deliberate and vote on who should receive a number of vaccines, including the flu shot, Covid-19 boosters, and vaccines for RSV, HPV, and meningococcal disease. Dr Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said: 'Kennedy is leading a MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] pseudoscience agenda, mostly as an economic stimulus for a very corrupt wellness/influencer industry'.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
New U.S. vaccine panel includes members who have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation
Dr. Robert Malone gestures as he stands in his barn on his horse farm July 22, 2020, in Madison, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) NEW YORK — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management. Kennedy's decision to 'retire' the previous 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices 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. On Tuesday, before he announced his picks, Kennedy said: 'We're going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel – not anti-vaxxers – bringing people on who are credentialed scientists.' The new appointees include Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, who has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation. Another is Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to prominence 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 and has 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. Abram Wagner of the University of Michigan's school of public health, who investigates vaccination programs, said he's not satisfied with the composition of the committee. 'The previous ACIP was made up of technical experts who have spent their lives studying vaccines,' he said. Most people on the current list 'don't have the technical capacity that we would expect out of people who would have to make really complicated decisions involving interpreting complicated scientific data.' He said having Pebsworth on the board is 'incredibly problematic' since she is involved in an organization that 'distributes a lot of misinformation.' Kennedy made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday. 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 vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The CDC's final recommendations are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs. The other appointees are: —Dr. James Hibbeln, who formerly headed a National Institutes of Health group focused on nutritional neurosciences and who studies how nutrition affects the brain, including the potential benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy. —Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies business issues related to supply chain, logistics, pricing optimization and health and health care management. In a 2023 video pinned to an X profile under his name, Levi called for the end of the COVID-19 vaccination program, claiming the vaccines were ineffective and dangerous despite evidence they saved millions of lives. —Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician from Los Angeles. —Dr. Michael Ross, a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist. Of the eight named by Kennedy, perhaps the most experienced in vaccine policy is Meissner, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who has previously served as a member of both ACIP and the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel. During his five-year term as an FDA adviser, the committee was repeatedly asked to review and vote on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that were rapidly developed to fight the pandemic. In September 2021, he joined the majority of panelists who voted against a plan from the Biden administration to offer an extra vaccine dose to all American adults. The panel instead recommended that the extra shot should be limited to seniors and those at higher risk of the disease. Ultimately, the FDA disregarded the panel's recommendation and OK'd an extra vaccine dose for all adults. In addition to serving on government panels, Meissner has helped author policy statements and vaccination schedules for the American Academy of Pediatrics. ACIP members typically serve in staggered four-year terms, although several appointments were delayed during the Biden administration before positions were filled last year. The voting members all have scientific or clinical expertise in immunization, except for one 'consumer representative' who can bring perspective on community and social facets of vaccine programs. Kennedy, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official, has accused the committee of being too closely aligned with vaccine manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. ACIP policies require members to state past collaborations with vaccine companies and to recuse themselves from votes in which they had a conflict of interest, but Kennedy has dismissed those safeguards as weak. Most of the people who best understand vaccines are those who have researched them, which usually requires some degree of collaboration with the companies that develop and sell them, said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. 'If you are to exclude any reputable, respected vaccine expert who has ever engaged even in a limited way with the vaccine industry, you're likely to have a very small pool of folks to draw from,' Schwartz said. The U.S. Senate confirmed Kennedy in February after he promised he would not change the vaccination schedule. But less than a week later, he vowed to investigate childhood vaccines that prevent measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. Kennedy has ignored some of the recommendations ACIP voted for in April, including the endorsement of a new combination shot that protects against five strains of meningococcal bacteria and the expansion of vaccinations against RSV. In late May, Kennedy disregarded the committee and announced the government would change the recommendation for children and pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots. On Monday, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the ACIP, saying he would appoint a new group before the next scheduled meeting in late June. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been posted, but a recent federal notice said votes are expected on vaccinations against flu, COVID-19, HPV, RSV and meningococcal bacteria. A HHS spokesman did not respond to a question about whether there would be only eight ACIP members, or whether more will be named later. Associated Press reporters Matthew Perrone, Amanda Seitz, Devi Shastri and Laura Ungar contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press
CBS News
2 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel. Here's who's on the list.
Health and Human Services 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. 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. 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, 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. Another former member of the FDA vaccines panel who was picked by Kennedy is Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses. 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." 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. The views on vaccines of several of Kennedy's other picks are less clear. 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. Dr. James Pagano, described by Kennedy as a "strong advocate for evidence-based medicine," appears to have published little about vaccines or medicine. Records from the Medical Board of California list Pagano as being retired. 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."
