Physician groups 'outraged' over RFK Jr.’s 'unprecedented' vaccine advisory board 'coup'

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Health care organizations ripped the decision to dissolve a national advisory board on vaccines, and apparently reconstitute it for a meeting this month.

On June 9, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced he was firing 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Doctors were “outraged,” calling it a “coup” that will generate confusion, not clarity, for people who want to learn about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

Conflicts of interest

The committee, largely made up of physicians, makes recommendations for vaccines for children and adults. The panel advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its members will be replaced with new members currently under consideration.

Kennedy cited at least two federal reports that spelled out conflicts of interest when ACIP members received “substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines. The member were not necessarily corrupt, he said.

“The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy,” he said.

‘Highly concerned and outraged’

Kennedy’s action prompted “outrage” and is nothing short of a medical coup, according to some of the leading doctors’ groups.

American College of Physicians President Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, said the organization “is highly concerned and outraged” by Kennedy’s decision.

“This announcement, coupled with the recent, preemptive actions HHS took on the COVID-19 vaccines that circumvented the standard, transparent vaccine review process, interferes with the practice of evidence-based medicine and destabilizes a trusted source and its evidence-based process for helping guide decision-making for vaccines to protect the public health in our country,” Goldman said in a statement.

The action “will seriously erode public confidence in our government’s ability to ensure the health of the American public and it will endanger the safety, welfare and lives of our patients,” Goldman said. “We call on the administration to immediately reverse course.”

‘A coup’ for medicine

American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin, MD, called the move “a coup.”

“Today’s ACIP members are some of the most qualified individuals to evaluate vaccines,” Benjamin said in a statement. “They possess deep understanding of science and were vetted for conflicts of interest prior to appointment. Removing all ACIP members at once is not how democracies work and it’s not good for the health of the nation.”

Benjamin has been a vocal critic of Kennedy, calling on the secretary to resign or be fired from the post. He used Kennedy’s initials in his statement and referred to Kennedy’s boss, President Donald J. Trump.

“RFK says he wants to restore trust and transparency. This action immediately raises concern over the ability of any slate of committee members appointed by the Trump administration to be viewed as impartial to RFK's views on any decision, and therefore their actions will be suspect and likely mistrusted,” Benjamin said.

‘A trusted national source’

American Medical Association President Bruce A. Scott, MD, issued a statement noting the continuing outbreak of measles, fueled partly by a declining rate of childhood vaccination.

“For generations, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has been a trusted national source of science- and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease. Physicians, parents, community leaders and public health officials rely on them for clinical guidance, public health information, and knowledge,” Scott’s statement said.

The “action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” he said.

“With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” Scott said.

More confusion, not clarity

The “unprecedented” move and Kennedy’s and the administration’s contradictory announcements on vaccines will cause confusion and uncertainty for families, said a statement by Susan Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“We are witnessing an escalating effort by the administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines,” Kressly said. “Creating confusion around proven vaccines endangers families' health and contributes to the spread of preventable diseases. This move undermines the trust pediatricians have built over decades with our patients and leaves us without critical scientific expertise we rely on.
“Children and families must be able to access the immunizations they need to stay healthy,” her statement said. “Our vaccine infrastructure must include this critical step of nonpartisan, expert review and discussion of the science and clinical recommendations for individual vaccines. Families and children will be the ones to pay the price for this decision.”

War on science and public health

Firing the panel of vaccine experts shows the Kennedy-Trump administration is escalating its war on science and public health, said Brandon G. Wilson, DrPH, MHA, senior director of health innovation and public health at Community Catalyst. That organization is a nonprofit advocate for health care access.

“Public trust is built through transparency, independent science, and engagement with communities — not through political purges, disinformation, and ideological control of public health agencies,” Wilson said in a statement. “At a time when preventable diseases are resurging, this move puts lives at risk and further politicizes decisions that should be guided by evidence and public interest, not conspiracy theories and personal agendas.”

‘Shocking and unscrupulous’

Alliance for Aging Research President Sue Peschin issued a statement with a link to the CDC’s criteria for serving on ACIP. That website includes rules for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest due to business interests, positions of authority, or other connections with organizations relevant to the work of ACIP. When members disclose a conflict of interest, they are prohibited from participating in deliberations and votes on the relevant topic.

Peschin called the move “shocking and unscrupulous.”

“The ACIP has consistently been a trusted advisory body that closely followed administrative rules regarding conflicts of interest, rotating terms, and transparency, and we are very concerned that this move signals that impartiality may soon be replaced by a fealty to the secretary,” she said.

“We fear that this new clean sweep with no overlap will likely lead to a committee that will consist entirely of members who have no previous experience with the ACIP or with geriatrics,” Peschin’s statement said. “We hope that the new committee maintains this expertise and remains nonpartisan.

“We call on policymakers to intervene in ACIP’s disruption,” she said. “Do not be fooled — Secretary Kennedy is not advancing ‘public trust in vaccines,’ but is instead undoing 50 years of public health achievement.”

Knowledge or suspicion?

At least two congressional physicians issued statements about Kennedy’s action.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-Lousiana), and Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-Washington), used social media website X, formerly Twitter, to comment.

“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” Cassidy said in his X post. “I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”

At least two people on X noted Cassidy specifically mentioned his experience with vaccines as a doctor, and the ACIP, in his speech announcing support for Kennedy’s nomination as HHS secretary.

“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes,” Cassidy said in the written version of his Feb. 4 floor speech in favor of Kennedy.

‘A direct attack on science’

Schrier said the move opens the opportunity for Kennedy to make up his own recommendations about vaccines or fill the ACIP “with conspiracy theorists and social media influencers.”

“This is a direct attack on science and a threat to public health,” she said. As a pediatrician, Schrier said she has relied on the ACIP recommendations.

“Anticipating that RFK Jr. might do exactly this, just last week, I introduced a bill to ensure that the ACIP would become a legally required organization staffed only by people with relevant scientific expertise and that any decision to not follow their recommendations must have an evidence-based rationale,” Schrier said. She referred to the Family Vaccine Protection Act, introduced with Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey). In a joint statement last week, they criticized Kennedy for presiding “over the largest measles outbreak in decades while actively undermining vaccination efforts for COVID-19, measles, polio and the flu — especially for pregnant women and the tiniest infants, two of the highest risk populations,” Pallone said. “Enough is enough — it’s time to take politics out of medicine and ensure all families have access to affordable life-saving vaccines.”

Restoring public trust

The administration is “prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Kennedy said in the official HHS announcement. “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.”

Kennedy elaborated on his rationale in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

“The committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” Kennedy wrote. “It has never recommended against a vaccine — even those later withdrawn for safety reasons. It has failed to scrutinize vaccine products given to babies and pregnant women. To make matters worse, the groups that inform ACIP meet behind closed doors, violating the legal and ethical principle of transparency crucial to maintaining public trust.”

There are political implications as well. All of the members were appointed during the administration of President Joe Biden, including 13 appointed last year. Their terms would run for years, meaning the current administration would be prevented from choosing a majority of the committee until 2028.

It appeared there would be appointments of new advisers within the next two weeks. Kennedy’s HHS announcement noted ACIP will convene its next meeting June 25 to 27 at the Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters of CDC.

“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said. “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. The entire world once looked to American health regulators for guidance, inspiration, scientific impartiality, and unimpeachable integrity. Public trust has eroded. Only through radical transparency and gold standard science, will we earn it back.”

Who were the members?

CDC’s ACIP Membership Roster, as of April this year, remained online on June 10. The current members were:

• Chair Helen Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH, an ACIP member from 2018 to 2023. “In advising the government, ACIP evaluates the safety and efficacy of vaccines and their role in personal and public health,” Talbot said in a 2024 news release from her employer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “My hope is to continue to improve immunization guidelines in adults and prevent disease. I am honored to serve as chair of the committee.”
• Edwin Jose Asturias, MD, professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases epidemiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health.
• Noel T. Brewer, PhD, Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health in North Carolina.
• Oliver Brooks, MD, FAAP, chief medical officer of Watts HealthCare Corp. in Los Angeles, California.
• Lin H. Chen, MD, FACP, FASTMH, FISTM, director of Mount Auburn Travel Medicine Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Helen Y. Chu, MD, MPH, FIDSA, professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington.
• Sybli Cineas, MD, FAAP, FACP, associate professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
• Denise J. Jamieson, MD, MPH, vice president for medical affairs and dean at Carver College of Medicine at University of Iowa.
• Mini Kamboj, MD, FIDSA, FSHEA, attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
• George Kuchel, MD CM, FRCO,AGSF, FGSA, FAAAS, professor and travelers chair, geriatrics and gerontology, UConn Center on Aging in Farmington, Connecticut.
• Jamie Loehr, MD, FAAFP, owner of Cayuga Family Medicine in Ithaca, New York.
• Karyn Lyons, MS, RN, immunization section chief of Illinois Department of Public Health in Springfield, Illinois.
• Yvonne (Bonnie) Maldonado, MD, senior associate dean for faculty development and diversity, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.
• Charlotte A. Moser, MS, co-director of the Vaccine Education Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.
• Robert Schechter, MD, MSc, chief of the immunization branch of the California Department of Public Health.
• Albert C. Shaw, MD, PhD, FIDSA, professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
• Jane R. Zucker, MD, MSc, FIDSA, adjunct professor at SUNY Downstate School of Public Health in New York.

Asturias, Brewer, Chen, Chu, Kamboj, Kuchel, Lyons, Moser and Zucker were appointed in 2024 for terms lasting until June 2028. The CDC roster did not list terms for Maldonado or Schechter.