RFK Jr. Fires Entire CDC Vaccine Panel Over Conflicts of Interest

In a sweeping move that’s sending shockwaves through the medical bureaucracy, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday the removal of all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, a decision he says is long overdue and essential to rebuilding shattered public trust.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) long criticized for operating as a rubber stamp for Big Pharma is now being “retired” in full, Kennedy revealed in an op-ed. Many of the current members, Kennedy noted, were rushed in by the Biden administration, with some appointed just months before the 2024 election.

“We are taking a bold step in restoring public trust,” Kennedy said. “The committee has become plagued with conflicts of interest, opaque processes, and a history of blindly endorsing every vaccine it's asked to evaluate even those later pulled for safety concerns.”

This is the latest in a string of major reforms by RFK Jr., who has already pulled the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women, and launched a half-billion-dollar initiative called Generation Gold Standard to overhaul vaccine development standards.

Consider the facts:

• According to a 2009 Inspector General report, 97% of ACIP members’ financial disclosure forms had omissions, and no significant action was ever taken.

• In 2000, a congressional investigation found that the CDC issued blanket conflict-of-interest waivers to committee members with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.

• ACIP has never once voted against a vaccine it was asked to review even in cases where safety concerns emerged after the fact.

Kennedy’s critics are already crying foul, but Americans have reason to applaud. For decades, federal vaccine policy has been shaped behind closed doors by individuals with direct or indirect financial interests in the very products they’re supposed to evaluate. That’s not oversight it’s a revolving door.

Even more disturbing, ACIP’s subgroups which help shape official recommendations have held meetings in secret, in violation of transparency laws designed to keep public health policy honest and accountable.

Now, under RFK Jr., the CDC and HHS are finally being forced to put public health above pharmaceutical profit. For the first time in years, Americans might have reason to believe that health officials are acting in their best interest not just doing the bidding of lobbyists and legacy bureaucrats.

Kennedy summed it up best: “The public must know that unbiased science guides the recommendations from our health agencies.”

And with this move, he’s putting that principle into action.

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