U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new members to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) to replace the members he abruptly fired earlier this week.
The new panel includes mRNA COVID vaccine critic Dr. Robert Malone and Great Barrington Declaration coauthor Professor Martin Kulldorff, as well as other highly credentialed doctors, scientists, and public-health experts.
“All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,” Kennedy said in a statement posted to social media Wednesday. “They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.”
ACIP is supposed to review safety and efficacy data before making new vaccine recommendations to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but according to Kennedy, the panel had become “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
On Monday, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the committee, explaining in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that the move was a step toward restoring public trust in vaccines. It was not immediately clear whether there would now be only eight ACIP members, or whether more would be named later.
In a long and detailed post on X Tuesday, the secretary accused previous ACIP panels of “malevolent malpractice” due to their “stubborn unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials before recommending new vaccines for our children.” This lack of due diligence, he argued, has led to a massive increase in the number of potentially harmful vaccines administered to children.
“Today, a compliant American child receives between 69 and 92 routine vaccines (depending on brand/dictated dosage) from conception to 18 years of age,” Kennedy wrote.
This is up from 11 shots in 1986. ACIP has recommended each of these additional jabs without requiring placebo-controlled trials for any of them. This means that no one can scientifically ascertain whether these products are averting more problems than they are causing.
Kennedy said the new panel will review safety and efficacy data for all of the vaccines currently on the schedule. “We’re going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel–not anti-vaxxers–bringing people on who are credentialed scientists,” he stressed.
The HHS secretary shared on X the bios of each of the new members he has appointed to the ACIP committee.
Joseph R. Hibbeln, MD, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service. As former Acting Chief of the Section on Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institutes of Health, he led research on immune regulation, neurodevelopment, and mental health. His work has informed U.S. public health guidelines, particularly in maternal and child health. With more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and extensive experience in federal advisory roles, Dr. Hibbeln brings expertise in immune-related outcomes, psychiatric conditions, and evidence-based public health strategies.
Martin Kulldorff, MD, PhD, is a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance. He has served on the Food and Drug Administration’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, where he contributed to national vaccine safety monitoring systems. Dr. Kulldorff developed widely used tools such as SaTScan and TreeScan for detecting disease outbreaks and vaccine adverse events. His expertise includes statistical methods for public health surveillance, immunization safety, and infectious disease epidemiology. He has also been an influential voice in public health policy, advocating for evidence-based approaches to pandemic response.
Retsef Levi, PhD, is the Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a leading expert in healthcare analytics, risk management, and vaccine safety. He has served as Faculty Director of MIT Sloan’s Food Supply Chain Analytics and Sensing Initiative and co-led the Leaders for Global Operations Program. Dr. Levi has collaborated with public health agencies to evaluate vaccine safety, including co-authoring studies on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and their association with cardiovascular risks. His research has contributed to discussions on vaccine manufacturing processes, safety surveillance, and public health policy. Dr. Levi has also served on advisory committees and engaged in policy discussions concerning vaccine safety and efficacy. His expertise spans healthcare systems optimization, epidemiologic modeling, and the application of AI and data science in public health. Dr. Levi’s work continues to inform national and international debates on immunization safety and health system resilience.
Robert W. Malone, MD, is a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology. He conducted foundational research in the late 1980s on lipid-mediated mRNA delivery, which laid the groundwork for later developments in mRNA-based therapeutics. Dr. Malone has held academic positions at institutions including the University of California, Davis, and the University of Maryland, and has served in advisory roles for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. His expertise spans molecular biology, immunology, and vaccine development.
Cody Meissner, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a nationally recognized expert in pediatric infectious diseases and vaccine policy. He has served as Section Chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and has held advisory roles with both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Meissner has been a voting member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, where he has contributed to national immunization guidelines and regulatory decisions. His expertise spans vaccine development, immunization safety, and pediatric infectious disease epidemiology. Dr. Meissner has also been a contributing author to American Academy of Pediatrics policy statements and immunization schedules, helping shape national standards for pediatric care.
James Pagano, MD, is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician with over 40 years of clinical experience following his residency at UCLA. He has worked in diverse emergency settings, from Level 1 trauma centers to small community hospitals, caring for patients across all age groups, including infants, pregnant women, and the elderly. Dr. Pagono served on multiple hospital committees, including utilization review, critical care, and medical executive boards. He is strong advocate for evidence-based medicine.
Vicky Pebsworth, OP, PhD, RN, earned a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan. She has worked in the healthcare field for more than 45 years, serving in various capacities, including critical care nurse, healthcare administrator, health policy analyst, and research scientist with a focus on public health policy, bioethics, and vaccine safety. She is the Pacific Region Director of the National Association of Catholic Nurses. She is a former member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee’s 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Safety Risk Assessment Working Group and Vaccine Safety Working Group (Epidemiology and Implementation Subcommittees).
Michael A. Ross, MD, is a 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. He has served on the CDC’s Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Breast and Cervical Cancer, where he contributed to national strategies for cancer prevention and early detection, including those involving HPV immunization. With research experience in hormone therapies, antibiotic trials, and immune-related conditions such as breast cancer prevention, Dr. Ross has engaged in clinical investigations with immunologic relevance. He has advised major professional organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and contributed to federal advocacy efforts around women’s health and preventive care. His continued service on biotech and healthcare boards reflects his commitment to advancing innovation in immunology, reproductive medicine, and public health.
Kennedy said the new ACIP members will attend the panel’s scheduled June 25 meeting where they are expected to vote on “vaccinations against flu, COVID-19, HPV, RSV and meningococcal bacteria,” according to the Associated Press.
Dr. Malone, who pioneered mRNA vaccine technology in the 1980s, was suspended from Twitter in December of 2021 for posting studies showing that the risks of the COVID vaccines outweighed the benefits.
“Thank you for the honor of serving my country in this way, @SecKennedy,” Malone posted on X, Wednesday. “I will do my best to serve with unbiased objectivity and rigor.”
On X Thursday, Malone thanked well wishers for all their “support and encouragement,” saying “it makes it easy to disregard the hate and attacks coming from corporate media.”
He added: “I am well aware that this will not be “fun”, but it is necessary. Public trust in the ‘public health enterprise’ must be restored with honesty, integrity, and transparency. I will always keep in mind the young couple with a small child facing hard decisions regarding vaccinations. As well as the vaccine-injured. A fundamental truth and core principle is that no drug is entirely safe. Stratified risk/benefit analysis combined with informed consent and respect for individual rights must guide decision making.”