Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to nominate seven new advisers to a scientific committee that recommends which vaccines Americans should take and when, according to two former federal officials with knowledge of the matter.
The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, wields enormous influence. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover the vaccinations it recommends.
After Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said he had received assurances that Mr. Kennedy would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”
In June, Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of the panel, asserting without evidence that the committee members were “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest,” even though they had been carefully vetted for such conflicts.
Two days later, he appointed eight doctors and researchers, half of whom had expressed skepticism of vaccines at some point. (One later stepped down because of financial conflicts of interest.)
Mr. Kennedy has demolished the status quo at the C.D.C., which he once called “a cesspool of corruption.” He fired the agency’s director last week, prompted the resignation of several top officials and has gutted its budget and departments.
The seven new members of the panel include a cardiologist and a geneticist who have sharply criticized Covid vaccine mandates. The views of the members on childhood vaccines are not yet known.
The news was first reported by Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in his Substack, “Inside Medicine.”
“At first blush, none of these potential candidates appear to have vaccine expertise,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician at Stanford University who served on the panel until June, when Mr. Kennedy dismissed it.
“It seems that there is a theme of ‘mainstream’ Covid policy denial,” she added. “Covid is not the only disease we are dealing with now, and we should move on to dealing with the overall vaccine disease prevention landscape.”
The new members will have little time to prepare for the next meeting, scheduled to begin Sept. 18. Among other matters, the panel may vote to remove important childhood shots from the immunization schedule.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, declined to confirm the plans. “You will hear it from us when there are new members to announce,” he said.
At their first meeting, the advisers nominated by Mr. Kennedy voted to rescind longstanding recommendations for a type of flu vaccine that contains thimerosal, a preservative that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.
The vote was followed a presentation by Lyn Redwood, a former leader of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Mr. Kennedy. Ms. Redwood, who is now employed at the department, claimed that thimerosal was dangerous and toxic to children.
In her presentation, she said incorrectly that the only flu vaccine still containing thimerosal had 50 micrograms per dose, double the actual amount.
The new panel members include:
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Catherine Stein, an epidemiology professor and tuberculosis researcher at Case Western Reserve University. In 2022, she called for an end to vaccine mandates at universities and wrote that such rules were “unethical.”
Dr. Stein confirmed that she expected to be named to the panel, but did not know when Mr. Kennedy might make the announcement.
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Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a cardiologist, is a member of the Independent Medical Alliance, which incorrectly claims that Covid vaccines have contributed to rising infant mortality, as well as to a 600 percent increase in heart problems among young men. (Robert Malone, a current member of the panel and a vocal critic of mRNA vaccines, is an adviser to the alliance.)
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Dr. John Gaitanis, a pediatric neurologist, has served for a number of years as an expert witness in a specialized federal vaccine court for families who believe they were harmed by vaccines.
Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health for The Times, with a focus on infectious diseases and pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.
Dani Blum is a health reporter for The Times.
Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration, which means keeping a close eye on drugs, medical devices, food safety and tobacco policy.
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