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The panel will meet this week and could limit access to measles, Hep B, COVID vaccines.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 24, 2025, in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty | Kayla Bartkowski
Health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed five more people to the federal advisory committee that sets national vaccination recommendations. Like the existing members, the new appointees have questionable qualifications for being on the panel, and many have expressed anti-vaccine views.
In June, Kennedy purged all 17 highly qualified and thoroughly vetted members of the committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on setting vaccine policy. Kennedy quickly repopulated ACIP with seven hand-picked allies, most of whom also have questionable qualifications and have expressed anti-vaccine or contrarian public health views. Two members, including the new chair, have also been paid to testify against the vaccine makers in cases claiming they caused harms, a clear conflict of interest.
Here are the new members:
Catherine Stein, a professor at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health. As Ars previously reported, Stein has advocated against vaccine mandates and wrote a 2021 article arguing that people should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19 because: "Our Lord has given us a mission to share the gospel. If we live in fear of death, that weakens our testimony. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease."
Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is not a highly contagious disease, and about 95 percent of people are naturally immune.
The Washington Post noted that in written testimony to the Ohio legislature in 2021, Stein falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines kill and severely harm people. "Some people have lost their lives, or their lives have been forever changed, after taking the vaccine," she wrote.
Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance (formerly Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance), which promotes misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and touts unproven and dubious COVID-19 treatments. Those include the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the de-worming drug ivermectin, and various concoctions of vitamins and other drugs. Milhoan has stated that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should be removed from the market, telling KFF in March: "We should stop it and test it more before we move forward."
Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Louisiana who reportedly lost her job for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In a speech at a Louisiana Health Freedom Day in May 2024, Griffin claimed that doctors "blindly believed" that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were safe. She has also claimed that the vaccines cause “bizarre and rare conditions," according to the Post.
Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist in St. Louis. Reuters reports that she is the daughter-in-law of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has opposed vaccine mandates.
Raymond Pollak, a semi-retired transplant surgeon who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the University of Illinois Hospital in 1999, alleging the hospital manipulated patient data to increase their chances of receiving livers. The hospital settled the suit, paying $2.5 million, while denying wrongdoing.
ACIP is scheduled to meet at the end of this week, on September 18 and September 19. According to an agenda recently posted online, the committee will vote on recommendations for a measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) combination vaccine, the Hepatitis B vaccine, and this year's updated COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine experts widely fear that the committee will rescind recommendations and restrict access to those vaccines. Such moves will likely create new, potentially insurmountable barriers for people, including children, to get vaccines.
ACIP-recommended vaccines are required to be covered by private health insurance plans and the Vaccines for Children program for Medicaid-eligible and under- or uninsured kids, which covers about half of American children. Without ACIP recommendations for a vaccine, insurance coverage would be an open question, and vulnerable children would simply lose access entirely.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 24, 2025, in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty | Kayla Bartkowski
Health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed five more people to the federal advisory committee that sets national vaccination recommendations. Like the existing members, the new appointees have questionable qualifications for being on the panel, and many have expressed anti-vaccine views.
In June, Kennedy purged all 17 highly qualified and thoroughly vetted members of the committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on setting vaccine policy. Kennedy quickly repopulated ACIP with seven hand-picked allies, most of whom also have questionable qualifications and have expressed anti-vaccine or contrarian public health views. Two members, including the new chair, have also been paid to testify against the vaccine makers in cases claiming they caused harms, a clear conflict of interest.
Here are the new members:
Catherine Stein, a professor at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health. As Ars previously reported, Stein has advocated against vaccine mandates and wrote a 2021 article arguing that people should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19 because: "Our Lord has given us a mission to share the gospel. If we live in fear of death, that weakens our testimony. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease."
Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is not a highly contagious disease, and about 95 percent of people are naturally immune.
The Washington Post noted that in written testimony to the Ohio legislature in 2021, Stein falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines kill and severely harm people. "Some people have lost their lives, or their lives have been forever changed, after taking the vaccine," she wrote.
Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance (formerly Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance), which promotes misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and touts unproven and dubious COVID-19 treatments. Those include the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the de-worming drug ivermectin, and various concoctions of vitamins and other drugs. Milhoan has stated that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should be removed from the market, telling KFF in March: "We should stop it and test it more before we move forward."
Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Louisiana who reportedly lost her job for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In a speech at a Louisiana Health Freedom Day in May 2024, Griffin claimed that doctors "blindly believed" that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were safe. She has also claimed that the vaccines cause “bizarre and rare conditions," according to the Post.
Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist in St. Louis. Reuters reports that she is the daughter-in-law of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has opposed vaccine mandates.
Raymond Pollak, a semi-retired transplant surgeon who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the University of Illinois Hospital in 1999, alleging the hospital manipulated patient data to increase their chances of receiving livers. The hospital settled the suit, paying $2.5 million, while denying wrongdoing.
ACIP is scheduled to meet at the end of this week, on September 18 and September 19. According to an agenda recently posted online, the committee will vote on recommendations for a measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) combination vaccine, the Hepatitis B vaccine, and this year's updated COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine experts widely fear that the committee will rescind recommendations and restrict access to those vaccines. Such moves will likely create new, potentially insurmountable barriers for people, including children, to get vaccines.
ACIP-recommended vaccines are required to be covered by private health insurance plans and the Vaccines for Children program for Medicaid-eligible and under- or uninsured kids, which covers about half of American children. Without ACIP recommendations for a vaccine, insurance coverage would be an open question, and vulnerable children would simply lose access entirely.
