STAT+: A vaccine expert explains why she’s ‘very worried’ about RFK Jr. and new CDC vaccine advisers
A conversation with Kathryn Edwards, a physician and expert in childhood respiratory diseases and vaccine safety, on RFK Jr.'s latest ACIP shakeup.
It’s been another tumultuous week for vaccines and public health. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of an expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on immunizations.
Kennedy, as everyone’s aware, is openly skeptical of vaccines. He said he took the extraordinary step to “restore public trust in vaccines.” He accused the advisory group of “malevolent malpractice” for acting as a “rubber stamp” for vaccine approvals without adequate safety data. The current experts were riddled with conflicts of interest, Kennedy claimed.
Two days later, Kennedy unilaterally appointed eight new members, some of whom share his vaccine skepticism and others with little or no professional experience with vaccines or vaccine safety.
