The U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dismissed all seventeen vaccine experts on a committee of the National Institutes of Health CDC. Kennedy wants to assemble a new committee himself, his ministry reported on Monday.
The scientific committee must advise which vaccines should be included in the vaccination program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and who should receive these shots.
This helps, among other things, in determining the coverage of health insurance. The experts are independent and make recommendations based on scientific evidence.
“A clean slate is needed to restore confidence in knowledge about vaccines,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. In the same piece, he claims that the commission is “plagued by conflicts of interest” and blindly approves any vaccine whatsoever.
It is unclear which conflicts he is referring to. Vaccination committees have a strict policy for potential conflicts of interest. There is a reporting requirement for this.
Not the first controversial choice of Kennedy
Kennedy is the son of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
He was already one of the most famous American anti-vaxxers before President Donald Trump appointed him Secretary of Health. Health experts already warned at the time of the consequences of that choice. They fear that it could reduce support for vaccines.
Kennedy spent years spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines, such as the claim that they cause autism. Scientists have refuted that claim multiple times with studies.
Since becoming minister, he has made several controversial choices. For example, he eliminated ten thousand full-time jobs within his ministry shortly after his appointment. And at the end of last month, Kennedy decided to no longer recommend corona vaccines for children and pregnant women.
Two weeks ago, the controversial report Make America Healthy Again was adjusted. It cited non-existent studies or misattributed them. The report had been presented two weeks earlier by Kennedy and a committee that investigates chronic diseases in children.