'Manufactured chaos': Kennedy guts CDC's vaccine panel of independent experts

The 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee are being removed from their posts, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee are being removed from their posts, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday afternoon.

Kennedy announced the change in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the “committee has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

Such a claim is "deeply insulting to the many scientists who contribute countless hours to the process," said Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We are, in fact, a model for the rest of the world."

"This is manufactured chaos," O'Leary said.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known more commonly as ACIP, consists of medical and public health experts — including pediatricians, epidemiologists and geriatricians — who make recommendations to the CDC about who should get certain vaccines, including the schedule for childhood vaccinations. Several times a year the committee holds public meetings where data is presented and reviewed.