The United States Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has announced he will remove all members of a vaccine advisory panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy labelled vaccines as a "divisive issue" and confirmed he would remove all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in an effort to regain "eroded" public trust.
ACIP members are independent experts who make recommendations, which the CDC director must sign off on before it becomes official practice or policy.
Kennedy is openly and historically anti-vaccination, and this is the latest move from the Health Secretary trying to shift vaccine policies from the previous Biden administration.
It is not confirmed who the new ACIP members will be.
“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science," Kennedy wrote, in a press release.
“ACIP's new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas.”
