RFK Jr says new ACIP members are not "anti-vax"

After firing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Robert F Kennedy Jr made a promise about his replacements:

None of these individuals will be ideological anti-vaxxers. They will be highly credentialed physicians and scientists who will make extremely consequential public health determinations by applying evidence-based decision-making with objectivity and common sense.

Yesterday he announced those replacements. Unsurprisingly, his promise is a farce.

Let’s look at the new members of ACIP.

Most well-known is Robert Malone, a physician and biochemist who’s repeatedly claimed he’s the “inventor of mRNA technology.” In reality, he was one of hundreds of people who contributed to mRNA’s development—certainly not the most relevant figure. Malone’s ear worm entered the public consciousness in a December 2021 appearance on Joe Rogan, when he claimed Americans getting vaccinated were suffering from “mass formation psychosis” akin to Nazi Germany. He has since been one of the more outspoken anti-vaxxers on that circuit.

Martin Kulldorff likely rings a bell. The biostatistician and epidemiologist is among the most famous Covid contrarians. As co-author of the Heritage Foundation-funded Great Barrington Declaration, Kulldorff has been a north star for the herd immunity battle paid for by pro-business interests. He’s been working with the libertarian think tank Brownstone Institute since 2021, where he’s argued against vaccinating children. Alongside fellow GBD author, Jay Bhattacharya, Kulldorff is behind the conservative-funded pseudo-journal, Journal of the Academy of Public Health. As Dr Ryan Marino notes, Kulldorff wrote that putting a mask on a toddler was “one of the most disturbing images of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

While Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at Dartmouth, previously served on ACIP, he too fits the Covid contrarian mold: according to Dr Jonathan Howard, Meissner “advocated for herd immunity via mass infection of unvaccinated children. He’s against masking children and supports Kennedy’s recent decision to take healthy children and pregnant women off the Covid-19 vaccine schedule. Ironically, Kennedy cites conflicts of interest as a key reason for firing ACIP members; Meissner had 12 such conflicts while serving on ACIP, though neither man has addressed this. Meissner co-signed the Great Barrington Declaration.

In 2023, MIT professor Retsef Levi claimed that “the evidence is mounting and indisputable that MRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people. We have to stop giving them immediately!” That’s far from his only fear-mongering misinformation. He’s also co-author of a 2022 paper that was weaponized by anti-vaxxers who falsely claimed Covid-19 vaccines cause heart problems.

Healthcare worker Vicky Pebsworth served on the board of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)—a group that has sowed doubt about vaccines for years. NVIC’s website claims 547 deaths have occurred due to the measles vaccine in America, while the Infectious Diseases Society of America has a slightly lower number: zero. NVIC advocates for alternative treatments to vaccines.

Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Joseph Hibbeln only has one published paper concerning vaccination, though he wrote a 2007 paper arguing that many psychiatric disorders may be caused by an omega-3 deficiency, and another in 2018 claiming that vegetarian diets might be linked to depression.

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Michael Ross, has been called a “serial CEO” with a biotech bent. He signed a letter pushing back against a study that claimed ivermectin is an ineffective treatment for Covid-19. He also serves in an advisory role at a supplements company, LarreaRX, which sells an herb called Larrea tridentata. Limited direct clinical evidence from human trials supports the herb’s efficacy for any specific medical condition, while some compounds (particularly NDGA) have been associated with potential liver and kidney toxicity, especially at higher doses or with prolonged use.

James Pagano is an emergency room physician. As Stat reports, Kennedy calls him a “‘strong advocate for evidence-based medicine’ and has served on multiple hospital committees. There is little else publicly available on Pagano’s experience or work on vaccines.”