US health secretary dismisses entire vaccine advisory panel

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced he was dismissing all members of a key federal vaccine advisory panel, accusing its members of conflicts of interest -- his latest salvo against the nation's immunization policies.

The decision to remove all 17 experts of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was unveiled in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an official press release. 

Kennedy cast the overhaul as essential to rebuilding public trust, accusing the panel of being compromised by financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.

"Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda," he said in the statement from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The public must know that unbiased science -- evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest -- guides the recommendations of our health agencies."

In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel had been "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and had become "little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."

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He said new members were being considered to replace the outgoing experts, who had been appointed for their recognized expertise and were required to submit conflict-of-interest disclosures.

Kennedy has spent the past two decades promoting vaccine misinformation, including the widely debunked claim that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot causes autism.

Since taking office, he has curtailed access to Covid-19 vaccines and continued to sow doubts about the MMR shot -- even as the United States experiences its worst measles outbreak in years, with three reported deaths and more than 1,100 cases. 

Experts warn the number of official cases may vastly understate the true toll of the measles outbreak.

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