Medical community concerned over RFK Jr. removing all members of CDC vaccine panel
Following Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s move to remove all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, questions mount over what the country's vaccine policy could look like. Host of 'The Bulwark Podcast' Tim Miller and Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Nahid Bhadelia MD join Alex Witt to break down the possibility of RFK Jr. 'stacking' the new committee with members who agree with his stance on vaccinations.
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3 hours ago
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Who are the eight new vaccine advisers appointed by Robert F Kennedy?
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, named eight new vaccine advisers this week to a critical Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel after firing all 17 experts who had held the roles. New members of the panel include experts who complained about being sidelined, a high-profile figure who has spread misinformation and medical professionals who appear to have little vaccine expertise. Kennedy made the announcement on social media. 'All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' Kennedy said in his announcement. 'They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.' Formally called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the panel advises the CDC on how vaccines should be distributed. Those recommendations in effect determine the vaccines Americans can access. This week, Kennedy also removed the career officials typically tasked with vetting ACIP members and overseeing the advisory group, according to CBS News. Related: RFK Jr announces new panel of vaccine advisers after firing entire previous team Kennedy is a widely known vaccine skeptic who profited from suing vaccine manufacturers, has taken increasingly dramatic steps to upend US vaccine policy. 'ACIP is widely regarded as the international gold standard for vaccine decision-making,' said Helen Chu, one of the fired advisers, at a press conference with Patty Murray, a Democratic US senator. 'We cannot replace it with a process driven by one person's beliefs. In the absence of an independent, unbiased ACIP, we can no longer trust that safe and effective vaccines will be available to us and the people around us.' Arguably the most high-profile new member, Robert W Malone catapulted to stardom during the Covid-19 pandemic, appearing across rightwing media to criticize the Biden administration while describing himself as the inventor of mRNA technology. Messenger RNA technology powers the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines. While Malone was involved in very early experiments on the technology, researchers have said his role was limited. Malone's star rose quickly after appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2022, where he and Rogan were criticized for spreading misinformation. On the show, Malone promoted the idea that both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine could be possible treatments for Covid-19, but said research on the drugs was being suppressed. Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have not been shown to improve outcomes from Covid-19. 'Malone has a well-documented history of promoting conspiracy theories,' said Dr Jeffrey D Klausner, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of Southern California, who recently told the New York Times he was in touch with Kennedy about his appointments. Kulldorff is a former Harvard professor of biostatistics and an infectious disease epidemiologist originally from Sweden. He said in an essay for the rightwing publication City Journal that he was fired because he refused to be vaccinated in line with the school policy. Like Malone, he rose to prominence during the pandemic as a 'Covid contrarian' who criticized the scientific consensus – views he said alienated him from his peers in the scientific community. He voiced his opposition to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and, in his essay, complained of being ignored by media and shadow-banned from Twitter. Kulldorff co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for limited closures instead of pandemic lockdowns before vaccines were available. The document became a touchstone for the American political right. Before the pandemic, Kulldorff studied vaccine safety and infectious disease, including co-authoring papers with members of CDC staff, such as on the Vaccine Safety Datalink. He was a member of the CDC's Covid Vaccine Safety Working Group in 2020, but said later he was fired because he disagreed with the agency's decision to pause Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine and with Covid-19 vaccine mandates. He served on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug safety and risk management advisory committee around the same time. He has since enjoyed support from people already within the administration, including the Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr Jay Bhattacharya, current head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr Vinay Prasad, head of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which handles vaccines. Meissner is a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He previously held advisory roles at the FDA and CDC, including ACIP from 2008-2012. In 2021, Meissner co-wrote an editorial with Dr Marty Makary, now the head of the FDA, which criticized mask mandates for children. In April, he was listed as an external adviser to ACIP on the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) committee. Notably, Meissner is listed in a new conflicts of interest tool launched by the health department in March. Kennedy had criticized the fired ACIP members as 'plagued with persistent conflicts of interest'. 'He's a card-carrying infectious disease person who knows the burden of these diseases, and he knows the risk and the benefit,' Dr Kathryn Edwards told CBS News. Edwards previously served as chair of the FDA's vaccine advisory panel. Pebsworth is a nurse and the former consumer representative on the FDA's vaccine advisory committee. She is also the Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, according to Kennedy's announcement. In 2020, Pebsworth spoke at the public comment portion of an FDA advisory panel meeting on Covid-19 vaccines. There, she identified herself as the volunteer research director for the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), 'and the mother of a child injured by his 15-month well-baby shots in 1998'. The NVIC is widely viewed as an anti-vaccine advocacy organization 'whose founder Barbara Lou Fisher must be considered a key figure of the anti-vaccine movement', according to an article from 2023 on how to counter anti-vaccine misinformation. Levi is a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who Kennedy described as an 'expert in healthcare analytics, risk management and vaccine safety'. In 2021, he opposed Covid-19 booster shot approval during the public comment portion of an FDA advisory committee hearing. In 2022, he wrote an article calling for EMS calls to be incorporated into vaccine safety data, arguing that cardiovascular side-effects could be undercounted – an article that later required correction. The potential effects of Covid-19 vaccines on heart health have been a focal point of right-leaning criticism. Last month, Levi was criticized for publishing a pre-print paper – a paper without peer review – that he co-authored with Dr Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general, a vaccine skeptic. The paper alleged that people who took the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine were more likely to die than those who received the Moderna vaccine. Kennedy described Ross as 'a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, with a career spanning clinical medicine, research, and public health policy'. However, as first reported by CBS News, Ross's name does not appear in faculty directories for either school. A spokesperson for George Washington University told the outlet that Ross did work as a clinical professor, but 'has not held a faculty appointment … since 2017'. A spokesperson for Virginia Commonwealth University described Ross as 'an affiliate faculty member' at a regional hospital system in the Capitol region. He is also listed as a partner at Havencrest Capital Management, as a board member of 'multiple private healthcare companies'. Hibbeln is a California-based psychiatrist who previously served as acting chief for the section of nutritional neurosciences at the NIH. He describes himself as an expert on omega-3, a fatty acid found in seafood. He also serves on the advisory council of a non-profit that advocates for Americans to eat more seafood. He practices at Barton Health, a hospital system in Lake Tahoe, California. His work influenced US public health guidelines on fish consumption during pregnancy. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician from Los Angeles 'with over 40 years of clinical experience', and a 'strong advocate for evidence-based medicine', according to Kennedy.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Mark Cuban Turned Down the Offer When Asked to Submit to be Kamala Harris' Vice President in 2024 Presidential Election: ‘I'm Not Very Good as the Number Two Person'
During a recent appearance on 'The Bulwark' podcast, Mark Cuban revealed he was invited to submit himself for consideration to become former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 presidential election. However, the 'Shark Tank' star, an outward supporter of the Harris campaign, turned the offer down. Interviewer Tim Miller opened the segment by prefacing that he had heard rumors at MSNBC that Cuban was tapped to join Harris on the campaign trail. More from Variety Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert Mock Trump for Complaining on Juneteenth About 'Too Many Non-Working Holidays': 'Juneteenth Is a Day of Joy - So Donald Trump Doesn't Like It' Trump Is 'Flouting the Law' in Delaying Enforcement of TikTok Ban, a Top Senate Democrat Says Trump Says David Ellison Is 'Great, He'll Do a Great Job' Running Merged Skydance-Paramount, as FCC Deal Approval Is Still Pending 'There was some green room gossip at MSNBC,' Miller said. 'I wouldn't tell you this if it wasn't pretty good. Somebody I kind of trust said that they asked you to send in VP vetting papers and you said, 'No, the list would be too long.' Is that true?' Cuban confirmed the rumors to be true and elaborated on his decision to bow out of the race. 'The second part of that, my response was I'm not very good as the number two person,' Cuban explained. 'And so if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president that, 'No, that's a dumb idea.' Right? And I'm not real good at shaking hands and kissing babies.' Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was the one ultimately selected to run alongside Harris. There was speculation that her runner-up choices would've been Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Donald Trump, who went on to win the 2024 election, selected JD Vance as his vice president. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Mark Cuban Says He Turned Down Kamala Harris' Offer to Be Considered for VP: ‘I'm Not Very Good as a No. 2'
Mark Cuban says he turned down an offer to be a candidate for Kamala Harris' vice president, telling The Bulwark podcast that he didn't even consider it because his personality isn't right for the second-fiddle job. The tech billionaire and 'Shark Tank' host's revelation during an appearance on Tim Miller's podcast caught the attention of Fox News, where the hosts of 'Fox & Friends Weekend' bandied about the idea of the Dallas Mavericks minority owner-as-veep. 'My response was I'm not very good as a number two person,' Cuban said on the clip they played from Tim Miller's show. 'It's the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, 'No, that's a dumb idea.' I'm not real good at shaking hands. My personality was different than times and backgrounds, and I think I've cut through the [bleep] more directly and impact on hearing — not a politician. So [I] would have been different but would have been awful … she would have fired me.' Fox News guest contributor Kaylee McGhee White responded by saying Harris may have dodged a bullet – even if Cuban was only asked to go through the vetting process (and was not necessarily the top choice). 'The fact there's an option worse than Tim Walz is really astounding, and I consider Mark Cuban to be far worse,' she said. 'It's interesting he says the reason not going through the vetting process is he didn't want to be Kamala Harris' No. 2. That suggests one of two things: Either Mark Cuban has political aspirations for the future, which are unfortunate consequences of Trump's race, convinced every mid-celebrity they can be high up in the politics.' She also considered that Cuban saw the Harris campaign as 'a sinking ship.' McGhee White added that Democrats are still looking for a scapegoat for Harris' defeat, but disagreed with the notion that they have no leaders. 'They're not leaderless or genderless and [there are] plenty of loud voices setting a tone for the party, and they happen to be trying to be arrested and storing these facilities and garaging into the press conferences,' she said. 'And they want to train them to open the borders and flood with crime and chaos.' Watch the entire exchange in the above clip. The post Mark Cuban Says He Turned Down Kamala Harris' Offer to Be Considered for VP: 'I'm Not Very Good as a No. 2' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
