The Wall Street Journal editorial board issued a scathing critique of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday, accusing him of undermining public trust in vaccines by appointing anti-vaccine advocates and conspiracy theorists to a key federal advisory board. “We didn’t think anyone could do more to damage trust in public health institutions than Anthony Fauci, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is giving it a whirl,” the editorial began.
“See the eccentric crew the Health and Human Services Secretary has tapped to advise the department on vaccines.” Earlier this month, Kennedy made headlines when he dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel that advises on childhood vaccine schedules and determines coverage under the federal vaccine injury compensation program.
In their place, Kennedy has named individuals with little to no professional experience in immunology or vaccines, and in many cases, a record of public opposition to vaccination. “Two of his new members have served as ‘expert’ witnesses paid by plaintiff attorneys in lawsuits against vaccine makers. Conflicts, anyone?” the board wrote.
One such appointment is biostatistician Martin Kulldorff, who supported claims against Merck’s HPV vaccine. The Journal pointed out a potential conflict of interest, noting that Kennedy once held a financial stake in a related case, which he has since transferred to his son, an attorney at the law firm Wisner Baum that is suing Merck.
Another controversial pick is biochemist Robert Malone, who opposes mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and served as a paid expert in litigation against Merck’s mumps vaccine. Malone has also publicly downplayed a recent measles outbreak in Texas and controversially claimed that two unvaccinated children who died had been victims of medical errors.
Also raising eyebrows is Retsef Levi, a business school professor at MIT with no medical or biological background. “The secretary appears to have picked some vaccine advisers out of a Make America Healthy Again hat,” the board quipped.
Other selections include Joseph Hibbeln, a nutritional neuroscientist focused on omega-3 fatty acids, and Dr. James Pagano, an emergency physician known more for his novels than vaccine expertise, who has publicly questioned studies on ivermectin’s ineffectiveness for COVID-19.
The board noted that only one appointee, Dr. Cody Meissner, has meaningful experience in vaccine policy, having served on previous federal panels. “Consider him the committee’s contrarian,” they wrote. “Mr. Kennedy claimed in his op-ed in these pages that reconstituting the advisory committee would restore public trust in vaccines,” the editorial concluded. “He’s on a path to do the opposite.”