Latest news with #Kulldorff
Gulf Insider
6 days ago
- Health
- Gulf Insider
Fired Harvard Epidemiologist Named to CDC Vaccine Panel
World-renowned infectious-disease epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff — who was fired from Harvard Medical School last year after refusing the COVID vaccine — just got a new gig. Kulldorff has been named a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Kulldorff, who had refused the COVID vaccine because of his infection-acquired immunity, lost his appointment at a Harvard-affiliated hospital in the early days of the COVID era, and in March of 2024 was officially terminated as a med school faculty member. Since the COVID lockdowns began five years ago this month, Kulldorff argued that tactics such as social distancing, masking children, vaccines after infections, and other extreme measures were not the best course of action to fight the virus. He co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for sensible tactics that would allow the globe to reach 'herd immunity' and has been signed by nearly 1 million scientists worldwide. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in announcing the new members of the panel last week on X, wrote that his selections signify a 'major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines.' Kennedy wrote he retired the 17 current members of the committee and is repopulating ACIP with eight new members '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. The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well,' Kennedy stated. MassLive reported that in 2021, 'Kulldorff posted on X that 'thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should.'' 'COVID vaccines are important for older high-risk people and their care-takers,' he wrote. 'Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.' According to the New York Times , after Kennedy's announcement, some infectious disease and vaccine experts accused the health secretary of going back on his pledge not to pick so-called anti-vaxxers. 'When Mr. Kennedy fired the entire committee, known as the A.C.I.P., he cited financial conflicts of interest and said a clean sweep was necessary to restore public trust in vaccination,' the Times reported. As for Harvard's role in the controversy, writing in City Journal last year, Kulldorff argued that Harvard turned its back on him, open debate, and medical freedom. 'The beauty of our immune system is that those who recover from an infection are protected if and when they are re-exposed. This has been known since the Athenian Plague of 430 BC—but it is no longer known at Harvard,' he wrote. 'Three prominent Harvard faculty coauthored the now infamous 'consensus' memorandum in The Lancet, questioning the existence of Covid-acquired immunity. By continuing to mandate the vaccine for students with a prior Covid infection, Harvard is de facto denying 2,500 years of science.' Kennedy, in announcing Kulldorff, noted he is a biostatistician and 'a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance.' '… Dr. Kulldorff developed widely used tools such as SaTScan and TreeScan for detecting disease outbreaks and vaccine adverse events. His expertise includes statistical methods for public health surveillance, immunization safety, and infectious disease epidemiology. He has also been an influential voice in public health policy, advocating for evidence-based approaches to pandemic response.' Also read: Early COVID-19 Vaccine Patent In China Raises New Questions For U.S. Investigators
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Appointee To CDC Advisory Committee Was A Paid Expert In Merck's Gardasil Lawsuit
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight new members to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday, including several anti-vaccine proponents, after dismissing all 17 existing advisers. Kennedy justified the overhaul to 're-establish public confidence in vaccine science,' claiming, without providing specific evidence, that prior Biden-appointed members had conflicts of interest. The new eight-member committee represents the minimum allowed under ACIP's founding charter. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist, was among eight individuals selected by Kennedy to join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kulldorff has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates. His appointment has also raised questions due to his paid involvement in litigation against a major vaccine manufacturer, according to Reuters. Citing court records, Reuters notes that Kulldorff served as an expert witness in lawsuits against Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) over its Gardasil vaccine, which is used to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The plaintiff accused the pharmaceutical company of not properly disclosing the vaccine's risks. Gardasil was approved in the U.S. in 2006 after going through clinical trials to prove its safety and a deposition in October, Kulldorff acknowledged that he had been paid $400 an hour for his work on the case and had billed approximately $33,000 through September. He also received a $4,000 retainer in connection with the North Carolina lawsuit, which was part of a broader legal effort encompassing about 200 related cases. In March, a federal judge ruled in favor of Merck in that particular case. Kulldorff's paid role as a litigation consultant could conflict with ACIP's established rules. According to the committee's guidelines, members are prohibited from serving as paid expert witnesses or litigation consultants in cases involving vaccine manufacturers while actively serving on the panel. Gardasil/Gardasil 9 sales declined 41% to $1.33 billion in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to lower demand in China, partially offset by higher demand in most international regions, particularly in Japan, and higher pricing and demand in the U.S. Excluding China, sales grew 14%, or 16%, excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Read Next: Are you rich? Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. Bezos' Favorite Real Estate Platform Launches A Way To Ride The Ongoing Private Credit Boom Photo: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article RFK Jr. Appointee To CDC Advisory Committee Was A Paid Expert In Merck's Gardasil Lawsuit originally appeared on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Appointee To CDC Advisory Committee Was A Paid Expert In Merck's Gardasil Lawsuit
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight new members to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday, including several anti-vaccine proponents, after dismissing all 17 existing advisers. Kennedy justified the overhaul to 're-establish public confidence in vaccine science,' claiming, without providing specific evidence, that prior Biden-appointed members had conflicts of interest. The new eight-member committee represents the minimum allowed under ACIP's founding charter. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist, was among eight individuals selected by Kennedy to join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kulldorff has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates. His appointment has also raised questions due to his paid involvement in litigation against a major vaccine manufacturer, according to Reuters. Citing court records, Reuters notes that Kulldorff served as an expert witness in lawsuits against Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) over its Gardasil vaccine, which is used to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The plaintiff accused the pharmaceutical company of not properly disclosing the vaccine's risks. Gardasil was approved in the U.S. in 2006 after going through clinical trials to prove its safety and a deposition in October, Kulldorff acknowledged that he had been paid $400 an hour for his work on the case and had billed approximately $33,000 through September. He also received a $4,000 retainer in connection with the North Carolina lawsuit, which was part of a broader legal effort encompassing about 200 related cases. In March, a federal judge ruled in favor of Merck in that particular case. Kulldorff's paid role as a litigation consultant could conflict with ACIP's established rules. According to the committee's guidelines, members are prohibited from serving as paid expert witnesses or litigation consultants in cases involving vaccine manufacturers while actively serving on the panel. Gardasil/Gardasil 9 sales declined 41% to $1.33 billion in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to lower demand in China, partially offset by higher demand in most international regions, particularly in Japan, and higher pricing and demand in the U.S. Excluding China, sales grew 14%, or 16%, excluding the impact of foreign exchange. Read Next: Are you rich? Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. Bezos' Favorite Real Estate Platform Launches A Way To Ride The Ongoing Private Credit Boom Photo: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article RFK Jr. Appointee To CDC Advisory Committee Was A Paid Expert In Merck's Gardasil Lawsuit originally appeared on
Boston Globe
13-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
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
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ex-Harvard professor fired after refusing COVID shot named to CDC vaccine panel
A former Harvard University professor who said he was fired over his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has been named to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on vaccines. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist, published an opinion piece last year detailing how he was let go by Mass General Brigham, and then consequently from his Harvard faculty position, after he 'objected both publicly and privately to the COVID vaccine mandates.' Kulldorff is among eight new members named by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, after Kennedy this week abruptly purged all 17 members appointed during the Biden administration. Kennedy characterized the decision to start over with new members as one that would restore public trust in vaccines. The new appointees include individuals who have criticized vaccines and spread misinformation, according to the Associated Press. 'Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,' he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Monday. 'A clean sweep is needed to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.' Read more: Mass. doctor ousted by RFK Jr. as part of purge to CDC vaccine advisory committee Before he announced his new panel picks this week, Kennedy said he would appoint credentialed scientists, 'not anti-vaxxers.' Doctors' groups and public health organizations have largely decried the move to oust 17 members ahead of their term ends. The list of all eight new appointees can be found here. Kulldorff co-authored the controversial Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, an open letter penned with two other public health experts in response to the COVID pandemic that advocated for lifting lockdowns for young and healthy people so heard immunity could develop. In 2021, Kulldorff posted on X that 'thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should.' 'COVID vaccines are important for older high-risk people and their care-takers,' he wrote. 'Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.' The second Trump administration in its vaccine planning has mirrored Kulldorff's opinions: Last month, the FDA announced new COVID shots would no longer be approved for healthy pregnant adults and healthy children. According to his biography, Kulldorff is currently a senior scholar at the Brownstone Institute and a fellow at the Academy for Science and Freedom. He has previously served on scientific advisory committees to the Food and Drug Administration and CDC. Kulldorff did not immediately return a request for comment. Mass. doctor ousted by RFK Jr. as part of purge to CDC vaccine advisory committee Trump cuts threaten 'irreplaceable' Harvard stockpile of human feces, urine A Mass. man bought an illegal depressant online and took his life. The seller will go to prison Boston OD deaths plummeted by 38% last year, lowest in a decade Read the original article on MassLive.
