Why RFK Jr. removed the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee? Who will replace them?

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Monday dismissed all 17 members of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP), a key panel that advised on how to use vaccines. He further announced plans to replace them with his own picks. The decision drew sharp criticism from leading medical associations and public health organisations.

Though Kennedy has not revealed who he would appoint as the new panel members, he said the new group will meet in Atlanta in two weeks. Although not typically viewed as a partisan board, the entire current roster of committee members were Biden appointees.

Kennedy announced the restructuring of ACIP in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an official press release.

Why did RFK remove the panel?

In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel was "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and had become “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science."

Meanwhile, Kennedy, in a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services, said, “Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda." 

He added, "The public must know that unbiased science The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”

Before becoming the nation's top health official, Kennedy was a prominent anti-vaccine activist. Kennedy, who has spent two decades promoting vaccine misinformation, cast the move as essential to restoring public trust, claiming the committee had been compromised by financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.

(With inputs from Wall Street Journal, AP and AFP)