Latest news with #MartinKulldorff
Wall Street Journal
12-06-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
Meet RFK Jr.'s New Vaccine Advisers
We didn't think anyone could do more to damage trust in public health institutions than Anthony Fauci, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving it a whirl. See the eccentric crew the Health and Human Services Secretary has tapped to advise the department on vaccines. Mr. Kennedy this week purged the agency's independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), claiming its members had conflicts of interest. Those ostensible conflicts were well-managed. But Mr. Kennedy vowed his committee replacements 'will exercise independent judgment.' Readers can judge whether this is likely to be true. Two of his new members have served as 'expert' witnesses paid by plaintiff attorneys in lawsuits against vaccine makers. Conflicts, anyone? Biostatistician Martin Kulldorff backed claims against Merck over its HPV vaccine. Mr. Kennedy held a financial stake in one of the cases, which after he became secretary he bestowed to his son, who works at the law firm suing Merck, Wisner Baum. Another appointee is biochemist Robert Malone, a loud critic of the Covid mRNA vaccines. He also served as a paid expert in litigation against Merck's mumps vaccine, which was rejected by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Dr. Malone has downplayed the Texas measles outbreak and said two deaths of unvaccinated children owed to medical errors.
Bloomberg
12-06-2025
- Health
- Bloomberg
RFK Jr.'s New Vaccine Panel Includes Two Paid Witnesses Against Merck
Two new vaccine advisers tapped by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have served as paid expert witnesses for plaintiffs suing Merck & Co. over some of the drug company's inoculations targeting measles, mumps and cancer. Robert Malone, a scientist who has espoused debunked theories about the safety of vaccines, along with Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist who has studied their side effects, were added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's committee on immunization policy. Both men have been hired by plaintiffs' attorneys in the past to opine about Merck's handling of its vaccines, court filings show.
WIRED
12-06-2025
- Health
- WIRED
RFK Jr.'s Appointees to CDC Vaccine Panel Are Not Good
Jun 12, 2025 6:30 AM Robert Malone, a mainstay in conspiratorial circles, and Martin Kulldorff, a coauthor of the widely criticized Great Barrington Declaration, are two of the most concerning picks. Photograph:Anti-vaccine advocate and current Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to social media Wednesday to announce the names of eight people he is appointing to a critical federal vaccine advisory committee—which is currently empty after Kennedy abruptly fired all 17 previous members Monday. In the past, the vetting process for appointing new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) could take years. But Kennedy has taken just two days. The panel, typically stocked with vaccine, infectious disease, and public health experts, carefully and publicly reviews, analyzes, and debates vaccine data and offers recommendations to the CDC via votes. The CDC typically adopts the recommendations, which set clinical practices nationwide and determine insurance coverage for vaccinations. Yesterday, Kennedy pledged that none of the new ACIP members would be 'ideological anti-vaxxers.' However, the list of today's appointees includes Robert Malone, who falsely claims to have invented mRNA vaccines and has spent the past several years spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about them. Speaking at an anti-vaccine rally in 2022, Malone spread dangerous falsehoods about mRNA Covid-19 vaccines: 'These genetic vaccines can damage your children. They may damage their brains, their heart, their immune system and their ability to have children in the future. Many of these damages cannot be repaired.' Troubling List Malone aligned with the anti-vaccine crowd during the pandemic and has become a mainstay in conspiratorial circles and an ally to Kennedy. He has claimed that vaccines cause a 'form of AIDS,' amid other nonsense. He has also meddled with responses to the measles outbreak that erupted in West Texas in January. In April, Malone was the first to publicize news that a second child had died from the highly infectious and serious infection, but he did so to falsely claim that measles wasn't the cause and spread other dangerous misinformation. In a newsletter post earlier this week, Malone proclaimed: 'Some people still believe that the term anti-vaxxer is a pejorative. I do not—I view it as high praise.' Malone is just one of the eight names released today. Another is Martin Kulldorff, one of the coauthors of the widely criticized Great Barrington Declaration, which called for letting Covid-19 spread largely unabated. Health experts called it 'unethical.' Vicky Pebsworth is also on the list, as well as on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center, one of the nation's oldest anti-vaccine groups that promotes the false claim that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy also appointed Retsef Levi, who has penned articles alleging dangers of Covid-19 vaccines, including a flawed 2022 article that was later corrected and an unpublished article coauthored with Covid-contrarian and Florida surgeon seneral Joseph Ladapo. The other four appointees are Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist; Cody Meissner, a pediatrician; James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; and Michael Ross, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. The appointments are likely to increase concern that federal vaccine recommendations will be corrupted and lead to Americans losing access to lifesaving vaccines. This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
Fox News
12-06-2025
- Health
- Fox News
RFK Jr. picks eight for vaccine panel after firing all 17 members
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday that he has selected eight new people to join the national vaccine panel after firing all 17 of its members. In an X post, Kennedy revealed that he "took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines" on Monday by reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). "I retired the 17 current members of the committee. I'm now repopulating ACIP with the eight new members who will attend ACIP's scheduled June 25 meeting," Kennedy wrote on Wednesday. "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." The new members are: Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD; Martin Kulldorff, MD, PhD; Retsef Levi, PhD; Robert W. Malone, MD; Cody Meissner, MD; James Pagano, MD; Vicky Pebsworth, OP, PhD, RN; and Michael A. Ross, MD. The secretary said all eight people "have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations." He said the committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule." Notably, Kulldorff was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which was written alongside Dr. Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University. The declaration, published in October 2020, promoted lifting lockdown orders sooner and allowing COVID-19 to spread among young, healthy people to more quickly reach herd immunity. The strategy also included precautions to shield those most vulnerable to severe illness, and the authors said the approach would help mitigate the long-term societal and economic harms of prolonged lockdown orders. It was condemned harshly at the time by the World Health Organization and Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 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." Kennedy on Monday 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. ACIP members typically serve 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. The committee, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy provided a brief biography of each of his new picks. Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy and federal service. "As former Acting Chief of the Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health, he led research on immune regulation, neurodevelopment, and mental health," Kennedy wrote. "His work has informed U.S. public health guidelines, particularly in maternal and child health. With more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and extensive experience in federal advisory roles, Dr. Hibbeln brings expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies." Kulldorff is a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance. "He 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, where he contributed to national vaccine safety monitoring systems," Kennedy wrote, adding that he developed tools used "for detecting disease outbreaks and vaccine adverse events.," and has expertise that "includes statistical methods for public health surveillance, immunization safety, and infectious disease epidemiology." Levi is the Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a leading expert in healthcare analytics, risk management, and vaccine safety. "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. His research has contributed to discussions on vaccine manufacturing processes, safety surveillance, and public health policy," Kennedy wrote, adding that Levi "has also served on advisory committees and engaged in policy discussions concerning vaccine safety and efficacy," and that his "work continues to inform national and international debates on immunization safety and health system resilience." Malone is a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology, specifically "foundational research in the late 1980s on lipid-mediated mRNA delivery, which laid the groundwork for later developments in mRNA-based therapeutics," Kennedy wrote, adding that Malone's "expertise spans molecular biology, immunology, and vaccine development." Meissner is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a nationally recognized expert in pediatric infectious diseases and vaccine policy. "He has served as Section Chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and has held advisory roles with both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)," Kennedy wrote, adding that Meissner was a voting member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, through which "he has contributed to national immunization guidelines and regulatory decisions." "His expertise spans vaccine development, immunization safety, and pediatric infectious disease epidemiology. Dr. Meissner has also been a contributing author to American Academy of Pediatrics policy statements and immunization schedules, helping shape national standards for pediatric care." Pagano is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician with over 40 years of clinical experience following his residency at UCLA. "He has worked in diverse emergency settings, from Level 1 trauma centers to small community hospitals, caring for patients across all age groups, including infants, pregnant women, and the elderly," Kennedy wrote, adding that he has also served on various committees and medical executive boards. "He is [a] strong advocate for evidence-based medicine." Pebsworth earned a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan. "She has worked in the healthcare field for more than 45 years, serving in various capacities, including critical care nurse, healthcare administrator, health policy analyst, and research scientist with a focus on public health policy, bioethics, and vaccine safety," Kennedy wrote, pointing to her current leadership role with the National Association of Catholic Nurses, and previous positions with the FDA's Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group and Vaccine Safety Working Group. Ross is 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. "He has served on the CDC's Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Breast and Cervical Cancer, where he contributed to national strategies for cancer prevention and early detection, including those involving HPV immunization," Kennedy wrote, pointing to his experience with "clinical investigations with immunologic relevance," advising organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and advocacy efforts related to women's health. "His continued service on biotech and healthcare boards reflects his commitment to advancing innovation in immunology, reproductive medicine, and public health," Kennedy added.
CBC
12-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
RFK Jr. names new vaccine advisers after firing previous advisory committee
U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight members to serve on a key panel of vaccine advisers after abruptly firing all 17 sitting members of the independent panel of experts. They will sit on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Eight is the minimum number allowed by law. Four of the new members have previously worked on committees associated with either the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, or both. Kennedy named Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W. Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth and Michael A. Ross. Meissner and Pebsworth have sat on the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, and Meissner also previously served on ACIP. Kulldorff is an architect of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for a lighter public health response to COVID-19 in October 2020, and previously served on an ACIP vaccine safety subgroup. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science and common sense," Kennedy said in a post on X. Kennedy said the new members are committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations. Kennedy, who has long questioned the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence, alleged that the prior panel members, many of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden, had conflicts of interest, without providing evidence of specific members' conflicts. He said the move was necessary "to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science." WATCH | Expert speaks on Kennedy firing vaccine panel: RFK Jr. 'gutting' vaccine advisory panel could erode public trust, says expert 1 day ago Duration 9:09 U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination. Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says the move lacks transparency and risks eroding the public's trust in vaccines. Committee members said their ACIP work follows rigorous vetting of their financial ties and that they must abstain from votes on any vaccine for which they have a conflict. Numerous physician groups have expressed concern and suspicion over Kennedy's unprecedented removal of all the panel's prior members. The American Medical Association, the nation's largest physician group, has called for a Senate investigation into their dismissal, and sent Kennedy a letter calling for an immediate reversal of the changes.
