On Jun. 12, 2025, U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. named eight members to serve on a key panel of vaccine advisers on June 11, including several who have advocated against vaccines, after abruptly firing all 17 members of the independent committee of experts.

They will sit on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advises the agency on who should get the shots after they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The group of eight – the minimum number allowed by the ACIP founding charter – includes four who have previously worked on committees associated with either the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, or both.

Others have published papers, posted on social media, or written online biographies with anti-vaccine views, including against the mRNA vaccine technology used in some of the newest immunizations such as the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kennedy, who has long questioned the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence, alleged that the prior panel members, many of whom were appointed by President Joe Biden, had conflicts of interest, without providing evidence of specific members’ conflicts. He said the move was necessary “to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

Committee members said their ACIP work follows rigorous vetting of their financial ties and that they must abstain from votes on any vaccine for which they have a conflict.