Sanders Warns RFK Jr.'s Purge of Vaccine Experts 'Will Lead to Preventable Illness and Death'

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced the removal of every member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of independent experts tasked with developing vaccine recommendations for the American public.

Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journalop-ed that he was "retiring" all 17 members of the panel known as ACIP, despite promising during his Senate confirmation process to keep the committee intact.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, warned in a statement that "firing independent vaccine experts is a dangerous, unprecedented move that will make it harder for the American people to access vaccines that are safe, effective, and essential to saving lives."

"For decades, Secretary Kennedy has spread lies and conspiracy theories about vaccines," said Sanders. "Now, with Trump's backing, he's doubling down on misinformation that will lead to preventable illness and death. At a time when we should be strengthening trust in science and expanding access to health care, this administration is doing the exact opposite. This is a continuation of Trump and Kennedy's dangerous war on science. It cannot stand."

In early February, just days before Kennedy's confirmation to lead HHS, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) declared in a floor speech that Kennedy had pledged to "maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes."

Cassidy, who voted in favor of confirming Kennedy, said in response to the Monday purge that "of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion."

"I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy," Cassidy wrote on social media, "and I'll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case."

"The wholesale firing and replacement of ACIP members is a blatantly political act that will undermine scientific impartiality and integrity, not promote it."

The total removal of ACIP members came roughly two weeks after Kennedy unilaterally ended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women, circumventing the input of ACIP.

In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Kennedy complained that some of the 17 members he ousted "were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration" and that "without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028."

Kennedy argued that "a clean sweep" of the panel was "needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science." But experts said the move would have the opposite effect, further undermining trust in federal vaccine policy.

"You have to worry that he may be bringing in people who are like-minded to him," Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a former ACIP member, toldThe Washington Post. "He just makes these decisions by himself, without any input from advisory committees or experts or professional societies. He is just running roughshod over public health."

Dr. Robert Steinbrook, director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, said in a statement that "removing all the members of the ACIP and replacing them with new members is far more likely to destroy public confidence in the federal government's approach to vaccines than to restore trust."

"It shouldn't matter which administration appointed the members of a federal scientific advisory committee," said Steinbrook. "The wholesale firing and replacement of ACIP members is a blatantly political act that will undermine scientific impartiality and integrity, not promote it."