Robert F. Kennedy Jr., upon becoming health secretary, claimed he stood for vaccine safety despite a history of anti-vaccine advocacy. He dismissed the CDC's expert committee and started appointing members who share skepticism toward vaccines. This move is seen as detrimental to public health and aims to legitimize his views, jeopardizing the trust in vaccination and public health initiatives. Experts warn that this reshaped committee could undermine efforts to combat infectious diseases in the U.S.
In January, I wrote that remaking the committee in exactly this way would be an especially harmful blow to Americans' health. Perhaps more than any other body of experts in the U.S., ACIP guides the nation's future preparedness against infectious disease.
I am neither. I am pro-safety. But Kennedy's actions suggest an intention to undermine the scientific consensus on vaccination in the United States.
Kennedy is giving his skewed version of scientific reality the government's imprimatur, serving the most core goal of the anti-vaccine movement.
Like Kennedy, few of these new appointees to ACIP have openly embraced the notion that they are anti-vaccine. However, they have spread misinformation.
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