Friday, 13 June 2025

Kennedy marks drastic downsizing of vaccine advisory panel with announcement of eight new members

Just the News
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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday released a list of eight new members on a key vaccine advisory committee, just days after he fired all members of the former panel.

Kennedy removed the former members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Monday, whom he accused of holding "persistent conflicts of interest" that made it "little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."

The new appointments mark a drastic downsizing of the panel, which previously consisted of 17 members. 

“The slate includes highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians," Kennedy posted to X. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense."

The new appointees are: 

  • Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who worked in nutritional neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health.
  • Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who used to work at Harvard Medical School.
  • Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.
  • Robert Malone, a biochemist who helped with early research of mRNA vaccine technology.
  • Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and former ACIP member.
  • James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician with 40 years of clinical experience.
  • Vicky Pebsworth, the Pacific region director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses, who previously sat on the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
  • Michael Ross, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

    • The new members will convene for their first meeting on June 25. 

    Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage. 


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