RFK Jr. Conducts His Vaccine Purge

We're stuck with this as-hole because he was putting up strong polling numbers as an independent candidate for Pres. Otherwise he'd never be part of of the Voldemort administration.

He knows substantially less about Biotech than I which is quite an endorsement. Too bad they didn't stick him over in Agriculture where he could work on the food chain and do little harm.

RFK Jr. Conducts His Vaccine Purge

His claims about conflicts of interest proved to be nothing.

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

June 10, 2025 6:20 pm ET

We’d like to conclude we were wrong to oppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Health and Human Services Department, but alas, no. The latest evidence is his purge of a vaccine advisory panel.

Mr. Kennedy announced his not-so-clean sweep of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in these pages on Tuesday. The panel of outside experts advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine schedules. Its recommendations determine which vaccines insurers must cover without patient cost-sharing.

The committee can also influence which vaccines are covered by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault alternative to the tort system that lets patients who suffer from vaccine-related side effects seek financial compensation. Trial lawyers hate the program because it reduces mass-tort claims.

The HHS Secretary has broad discretion over the panel’s remit and composition. There might be a constitutional argument for eliminating the committee and other outside advisory panels because they can weaken executive accountability. Agency leaders have sometimes shifted political responsibility for controversial decisions to advisory panels.

But Mr. Kennedy’s beef seems to be that the committee’s members know something about vaccines and may have been involved in their research and development. “Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he writes. How does he define “substantial”?

Some members have been paid by vaccine makers—typically sums less than their salaries—to assist with clinical trials in which they help evaluate the vaccines for safety and efficacy. These trials are double-blinded, meaning doctors don’t know which volunteers receive the vaccine or placebo so there’s no financial incentive to tilt the data in favor of manufacturers.

Mr. Kennedy this year posted members’ self-identified perceived or potential conflicts on the CDC website. They show that the members have properly recused themselves from decisions that involve products for which they served as trial investigators, as well as those of their competitors, or if they held stock in companies. In other words, the conflicts of interest were honestly handled.

The secretary says the new members “will refuse to serve as a rubber stamp,” but ACIP doesn’t automatically approve what industry wants. The committee has often recommended narrower applications for vaccines, including for RSV, HPV and Covid booster shots.

Mr. Kennedy says “the problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt,” though he implies it. “The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy.” Ah, yes. His goal is to eliminate incentives to develop vaccines.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to confirm Mr. Kennedy after some indecision, tweeted Tuesday that “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.” Mr. Cassidy said he spoke with the secretary to ensure this won’t be the case.

That’s nice, but Mr. Kennedy seems more intent on vindicating his critics than pleasing the Senator.