Anti-vaxxer or ‘highly capable'? Ex-Harvard Medical School expert tapped by RFK Jr. for vaccine panel defies easy categories

Yet the Swedish-born scientist's views on vaccines are complex, and the rush to categorize him underscores the intense polarization of public science that accelerated during the pandemic and has continued unabated, some in the scientific community argue.
His appointment came two days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Advertisement
Critics of Kennedy's move pointed out the former members had undergone a lengthy vetting process that ensured they had the right expertise and no conflicts of interest.
Advertisement
'[Kulldorff] is a serious and highly capable vaccine scientist who was unjustly put forth as part of a bad tribe of people who wanted to hurt the health of the nation, when all he was doing was trying to put forth a better plan for managing the country's response to the pandemic,' said Dr. Jeffrey Flier, an endocrinologist and former dean of Harvard Medical School. 'The opposition to contrarian views was pathological and ultimately detrimental to public health.'
Kulldorff, who works as an infectious-disease and vaccine consultant in Connecticut, is best known as the co-author of the
But, because it was published at the height of the pandemic in October 2020, many public health officials excoriated the declaration, saying lifting lockdowns that early would have caused many more deaths and hospitalizations and overwhelmed the health care system.
Kulldorff is among other skeptics of lockdown and vaccine measures who were once vilified but have now gained new influence in the Trump administration.
Advertisement
'It is unfortunate if each administration is trying to promote its preferred views, while vaccine science does have a lot of strong evidence and it should not be politicized,' said
Kulldorff on Thursday declined to comment on his appointment to the CDC panel or discuss his views on vaccines.
But in a January interview with the Globe, Kulldorff said the Great Barrington Declaration was borne out of frustration.
In the fall of 2020, Kulldorff said he began communicating with several other scientists who were dismayed by the 'one-sided nature' of the public policy discussion over the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them was
The trio ultimately agreed to meet for three days in Great Barrington, a town nestled in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. Between walks in the woods, they crafted a succinct statement opposing the lockdowns, noting that there was no scientific consensus for school closures and other stringent measures. They argued for a more targeted approach focused on protecting those most vulnerable, particularly the elderly, while life should resume as normal for everyone else.
'It's a basic principle of public health to protect those most vulnerable,' Kulldorff said in the January interview. 'Instead, [lockdown measures] protected the laptop class while exposing the working class.'
Advertisement
Almost immediately after its publication online, the declaration prompted a visceral backlash in the scientific community and among members of the Biden administration.
Kulldorff said he received anonymous death threats via email and accusations that he supported 'mass murder,' he recalled. Others alleged that he was part of a right-wing conspiracy financed by the the oil billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch, he said. Facebook deleted a page set up by the scientists, and Kulldorff's account on Twitter, now X, was suspended.
It later emerged that two of the nation's top federal health officials —
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, the former head of the National Institutes of Health — worked behind the scenes
However, Kulldorff has repeatedly stressed that he is a supporter of vaccines and has called them 'one of the most significant health inventions in history.' At the same time, Kulldorff said he opposed the vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic in part because, in his view, people who had already been infected with the virus did not need them; and vaccination efforts should have been focused on the elderly, who were dying at far greater rates.
'Vaccines are a vital medical invention, allowing people to obtain immunity without the risk that comes from getting sick,' Kulldorff
Advertisement
Kulldorff was dismissed from his hospital, Mass General Brigham, and from Harvard Medical School, over the hospital's requirement for staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Kulldorff has said he declined to get the COVID shot because he had already been infected with the virus, which gave him immunity; and he didn't consider it ethical to get the vaccine while others needed it more. Kulldorff also said he has an immune deficiency that made him especially vulnerable to complications from vaccines.
'I am very much in favor of vaccines, but I was against the vaccine mandates for a few reasons,' Kulldorff said
in the January interview
.
'If you already had COVID, there is no need for the vaccine. It gives you natural immunity. It's better for others to take it.'
Chris Serres can be reached at

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

New York Post

31 minutes ago

• New York Post

Democratic mayoral race didn't even TOUCH on fixing the public schools

If there's one thing the Democratic candidates for mayor don't want to talk about, it's getting better results out of the city's public schools. Even though the Department of Education, now burning more than $40 billion a year and over $33,000 per student, is easily the biggest item in the city budget and still growing even though enrollment is declining. To be fair, one candidate did want to talk about the schools, but hedge-fund exec and philanthropist Whitney Tilson never got traction, perhaps because he alone refused to kow-tow to the United Federation of Teachers. Otherwise, 'I give the mayoral candidates a D or an F grade across the board,' said Ray Domanico, co-author of a damning Manhattan Institute report on education in the mayoral race. Of course, most of the field are die-hard progressives who'll never question the anti-excellence 'equity' agenda, nor cross the self-serving UFT. The worst of them, Zohran Mamdani, actually calls for ending mayoral control of the DOE and so guaranteeing that voters can't hold anyone accountable for failing schools. This, when just 33% of the city's fourth graders scored proficient in math last year and 28% in reading, numbers that don't get any better in the higher grades. Supposedly less-radical Andrew Cuomo did try to stand up to the teachers unions as governor, but got his hat handed to him. He's since publicly denounced his own past positions and even embraced a core priority of the mayor he once held in utter contempt, calling to ramp up Bill de Blasio's 'community schools' initiative. In all, Cuomo's education platform panders shamelessly to the UFT and its hatred of charter schools — the only part of the public-school system that offers real educational opportunity in most of the city. No one in the race dares call for a return to Bloomberg-era policies: expanding charters while opening more good regular public schools and doing top-down reorganization of failed ones. Nor will they breathe a word about chronic absenteeism, a huge post-COVID problem. More than a third, 34.8%, of Gotham students — about 300,000 public school kids —missed at least 10% of the 180-day school year in 2024, up from 26.5% in 2019. That's a disaster, but the candidates won't even talk about it Maybe the fall campaign will see candidates talking about doing better for New York's kids, but it's beyond damning that the topic is taboo in today's Democratic Party.

Miami Herald

an hour ago

• Miami Herald

Newsom's podcast sidekick: a single-use plastic water bottle

LOS ANGELES — Johnny had Ed. Conan had Andy. And Gov. Gavin Newsom? A single-use plastic water bottle. In most of the YouTube video recordings of Newsom's new podcast, 'This is Gavin Newsom,' a single-use plastic water bottle lurks on a table nearby. Sometimes, it is accompanied by a single-use coffee cup. Other times, it stands alone. Typically, such product placement would raise nary an eyebrow. But in recent weeks, environmentalists, waste advocates, lawmakers and others have been battling with the governor and his administration over a landmark single-use plastic law that Newsom signed in 2022, but which he has since worked to defang - reducing the number of packaged single-use products the law was designed to target and potentially opening the door for polluting forms of recycling. Anti-plastic advocates say it's an abrupt and disappointing pivot from the governor, who in June 2022, decried plastic pollution and the plague of single-use plastic on the environment. 'It's like that whole French Laundry thing all over again,' said one anti-plastic advocate, who didn't want to be identified for fear of angering the governor. Newsom was infamously caught dining without a mask at the wine country restaurant during the COVID-19 lockdown. Newsom's efforts to scale back SB 54, the state's single-use plastic recycling law, has dismayed environmentalists who have long considered Newsom one of their staunchest allies. 'Our kids deserve a future free of plastic waste and all its dangerous impacts ... No more,' Newsom said in 2022, when he signed SB 54. 'California won't tolerate plastic waste that's filling our waterways and making it harder to breathe. We're holding polluters responsible and cutting plastics at the source.' Asked about the presence of the plastic water bottle, Daniel Villaseñor, the governor's deputy director of communications, had this response: 'Are you really writing a story this baseless or should we highlight this video for your editor?' Villaseñor said via email, attaching a video clip showing this reporter seated near a plastic water bottle at last year's Los Angeles Times' Climate Summit. (The bottles were placed near chairs for all the panelists; this particular one was never touched.) After this story was first published, the governor's office said the plastic water bottles seen on the podcast were placed there by staff or production teams and not at Newsom's request, and that the governor remains committed to seeing SB 54 implemented. More than a half-dozen environmentalists and waste advocates asked to comment for this story declined to speak on the record, citing concerns including possible retribution from the governor's office and appearing to look like scolds as negotiations over implementing SB 54 continue. Dianna Cohen, the co-founder and chief executive of Plastic Pollution Coalition, said that while she wouldn't comment on the governor and his plastic sidekick, she noted that plastic pollution is an 'urgent global crisis' that requires strong policies and regulations. 'Individuals — especially those in the public eye — can help shift culture by modeling these solutions. We must all work to embrace the values we want to see and co-create a healthier world,' she said in a statement. On Thursday, Newsom dropped a new episode of 'This is Gavin Newsom' with independent journalist Aaron Parnas. In the video, there wasn't a plastic bottle in sight. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.

Chicago Tribune

5 hours ago

• Chicago Tribune

US measles count now tops 1,200 cases, and Iowa announces an outbreak

The U.S. logged fewer than 20 measles cases this week, though Iowa announced the state's first outbreak Thursday and Georgia confirmed its second Wednesday. There have been 1,214 confirmed measles cases this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Health officials in Texas, where the nation's biggest outbreak raged during the late winter and spring, confirmed six cases in the last week. There are three other major outbreaks in North America. The longest, in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 2,179 cases from mid-October through June 17. The province logged its first death June 5 in a baby who got congenital measles but also had other preexisting conditions. Another outbreak in Alberta, Canada, has sickened 996 as of Thursday. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 2,335 measles cases and four deaths as of Friday, according to data from the state health ministry. Other U.S. states with active outbreaks — which the CDC defines as three or more related cases — include Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma. In the U.S., two elementary school-aged children in the epicenter in West Texas and an adult in New Mexico have died of measles this year. All were unvaccinated. Measles vaccination rates drop after COVID-19 pandemic in counties across the USMeasles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000. There are a total of 750 cases across 35 counties, most of them in West Texas, state health officials said Tuesday. Throughout the outbreak, 97 people have been hospitalized. State health officials estimated less than 1% of cases — fewer than 10 — are actively infectious. Fifty-five percent of Texas' cases are in Gaines County, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county has had 413 cases since late January — just under 2% of its residents. The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Local health officials said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of 'what the child's doctor described as measles pulmonary failure.' A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February; Kennedy said the child was 6. New Mexico held steady Friday with a total of 81 cases. Seven people have been hospitalized since the outbreak started. Most of the state's cases are in Lea County. Sandoval County near Albuquerque has six cases, Eddy County has three, Doña Ana County has two. Chaves, Curry and San Juan counties have one each. An unvaccinated adult died of measles-related illness March 6. The person did not seek medical care. Oklahoma added one case Friday for a total of 17 confirmed and three probable cases. The state health department is not releasing which counties have cases. Arizona has four cases in Navajo County. They are linked to a single source, the county health department said June 9. All four were unvaccinated and had a history of recent international travel. Colorado has seen a total of 16 measles cases in 2025, which includes one outbreak of 10 related cases. The outbreak is linked to a Turkish Airlines flight that landed at Denver International Airport in mid-May. Four of the people were on the flight with the first case — an out-of-state traveler not included in the state count — while five got measles from exposure in the airport and one elsewhere. Health officials are also tracking an unrelated case in a Boulder County resident. The person was fully vaccinated but had 'recently traveled to Europe, where there are a large number of measles cases,' the state health department said. Other counties that have seen measles this year include Archuleta and Pueblo. Georgia has an outbreak of three cases in metro Atlanta, with the most recent infection confirmed Wednesday. The state has confirmed six total cases in 2025. The remaining three are part of an unrelated outbreak from January. Illinois health officials confirmed a four-case outbreak on May 5 in the far southern part of the state. It grew to eight cases as of June 6, but no new cases were reported in the following weeks, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The state's other two cases so far this year were in Cook County, and are unrelated to the southern Illinois outbreak. Illinois unveils online tool showing measles vaccination rates by schoolIowa has had six total measles cases in 2025. Four are part of an outbreak in eastern Johnson County, among members of the same household. County health officials said the people are isolating at home, so they don't expect additional spread. Kansas has a total of 79 cases across 11 counties in the southwestern part of the state, with three hospitalizations. All but three of the cases are connected, and most are in Gray County. Montana had 22 measles cases as of Friday. Fourteen were in Gallatin County, which is where the first cases showed up — Montana's first in 35 years. Flathead and Yellowstone counties had two cases each, and Hill County had four cases. There are outbreaks in neighboring North Dakota and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. North Dakota, which hadn't seen measles since 2011, was up to 34 cases as of June 6, but has held steady since. Two of the people have been hospitalized. All of the people with confirmed cases were not vaccinated. There were 16 cases in Williams County in western North Dakota on the Montana border. On the eastern side of the state, there were 10 cases in Grand Forks County and seven cases in Cass County. Burke County, in northwest North Dakota on the border of Saskatchewan, Canada, had one case. Measles cases also have been reported this year in Alaska, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Health officials declared earlier outbreaks in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania over after six weeks of no new cases. Tennessee's outbreak also appears to be over. Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. The CDC said in May that more than twice as many measles have come from outside of the U.S. compared to May of last year. Most of those are in unvaccinated Americans returning home. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. Getting another MMR shot as an adult is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective vaccine made from 'killed' virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. People who have documentation that they had measles are immune and those born before 1957 generally don't need the shots because so many children got measles back then that they have 'presumptive immunity.' Measles has a harder time spreading through communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — due to 'herd immunity.' But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash. The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC. Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. There's no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.