Anti-vaccine activists are now the majority in RFK, Jr.’s CDC Vaccine Panel

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving several prominent right-wing and anti-vaccine medical groups a formal role in meetings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee.

Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, has sought to completely reshape the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since taking over at HHS. Last year, he replaced all original 17 members with contrarians and prominent anti-vaccine voices. …

In his latest move to control ACIP, Kennedy has reshaped the body’s charter. … The new charter broadens ACIP’s focus to identifying gaps in vaccine safety research and studying the cumulative effects of the childhood vaccine schedule and ingredients like aluminum.

It also adds four additional liaison organizations.

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Liaisons are non-voting members of the committee who can comment and ask questions during presentations and assist the body with feedback. The groups Kennedy has added—Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Independent Medical Alliance, Physicians for Informed Consent, and the Medical Academy of Pediatrics and Special Needs—have each promoted anti-vaccine narratives in line with his long-held beliefs.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here