"Kennedy said the picks will demand “definitive safety and efficacy data” for vaccine recommendations. His choices include at least three critics of mRNA coronavirus vaccines."
"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight people to the influential federal panel that recommends vaccines to Americans on Wednesday, elevating several vaccine critics days after he purged the group’s entire membership.
His picks for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices include a well-known pediatric infectious-diseases expert and at least three people who have criticized the use of mRNA coronavirus vaccines. Some of the more notable selections include Martin Kulldorff, the co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for herd immunity through mass covid infection in 2020, and Vicky Pebsworth, who is listed on the board of the nation’s oldest anti-vaccine group.
“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,” Kennedy said in an X post on Wednesday announcing the picks. “They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.”
The other new members are: Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist; Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management; Robert W. Malone, a biochemist; Cody Meissner, a pediatrician; James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; and Michael A. Ross, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology."
Lena H. Sun and Lauren Weber report for the Washington Post June 11, 2025.
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