RFK Jr. Appoints 8 New CDC Vaccine Advisors After Firing Entire Panel

U.S. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight researchers and physicians to the CDC vaccine advisory panel to replace approximately half of the members he fired from the panel earlier this week.

Kennedy announced the move late Wednesday on X, two days after removing all 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, in what he called “a major step in restoring public trust in vaccines.”

The eight new members are, according to Kennedy:

• Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service.
• Martin Kulldorff, M.D., Ph.D., a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance.
• Retsef Levi, Ph.D., professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a leading expert in healthcare analytics, risk management, and vaccine safety.
• Dr. Robert W. Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology.
• Dr. Cody Meissner, professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a nationally recognized expert in pediatric infectious diseases and vaccine policy.
• Dr. James Pagano, a board-certified emergency medicine physician with over 40 years of clinical experience following his residency at UCLA.
• Vicky Pebsworth, OP, Ph.D., RN, who holds a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan.
• Dr. Michael A. Ross, 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.

On Monday, I took a major step towards restoring public trust in vaccines 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…

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) June 11, 2025

You can read the full article from CHD’s The Defender HERE.

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