Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary, has dismissed members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). RFK Jr. said that the move was necessary to reestablish public trust and address longstanding concerns over conflicts of interest.

In an op-ed published on Monday in the Wall Street Journal (as reported by The Children’s Health Defense), Kennedy claimed that the panel has “a history of conflicts of interest, persecution of dissidents, a lack of curiosity, and skewed science.” The problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt. Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it,” Kennedy wrote. “The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy.”

ACIP members are appointed to four-year terms, and eight of the most recent appointments were made in the final days of the administration of Joe Biden. That move was ”very intentional,” a former senior HHS official told STAT News. “It was our goal to fill every vacancy on every [federal advisory committee] the department has, with particular focus on ones like ACIP where maintenance of our scientific expertise was critical.”

When dismissing the members of the ACIP, RFK Jr. cited reports from a House committee in 2000 and the HHS inspector general in 2009 that detailed financial connections between ACIP members and pharmaceutical companies. He said his decision to replace all 17 current members was driven by the need for a “clean slate.”

Kennedy has long criticized aspects of United States’ vaccine programs, arguing they are too closely aligned with industry interests and fail to prioritize public health. His detractors frequently label him an “anti-vaxxer.”

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Mandy Cohen, who served as the CDC director under Biden, told NBC News the move “spreads confusion and casts doubt on transparent public health processes that protect Americans.” Richard Besser, who was acting CDC director under Barack Obama, said it “should erase any remaining doubt that he intends to impose his personal anti-vaccine agenda on the American people.” –RT

During his confirmation hearings, RFK Jr. pledged that his decisions would be based on science. In his Wall Street Journal piece, he warned against attributing the American public’s “crisis of trust” solely to “misinformation or anti-science attitudes.”