Anti-Vax RFK Jr. Panel Seeks To Expand Its Remit With Discussion of Covid Vaccine Injuries

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked vaccine advisory committee — filled with vaccine skeptics — plans to expand its remit beyond making vaccine recommendations to discuss alleged Covid vaccine injuries.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also will look at long Covid and may vote on future vaccine recommendations during an upcoming meeting announced in the federal registry this week.Mr. Kennedy fired all of the previous members on the committee last year and replaced many of them with members who share his long-held skepticism of vaccines.Among the recommendations the committee made last year was to reclassify the Covid vaccine as a matter of “shared clinical decision-making” — making it an individual’s personal choice to receive instead of a recommendation — for those under age 65. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also no longer recommend the vaccine for healthy pregnant women. An overhaul of the vaccine schedule for children in the United States that was endorsed by the panel removed Covid vaccines for children.Delving into possible vaccine injuries is not a normal function of the panel, and is traditionally handled by other boards. One of them, the Advisory Committee on Childhood Vaccines, tracks a program set up to compensate individuals who claim they have been injured by vaccines. Mr. Kennedy has proposed an overhaul of the compensation program to make it easier to sue pharmaceutical companies over injuries individuals claim are tied to vaccines.President Trump’s first administration used the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to shield pharmaceutical companies from liability for Covid vaccines during the pandemic to accelerate their development. Mr. Kennedy could be preparing to reverse that policy.In a 2024 appearance on Bill Maher’s show, Mr. Kennedy claimed that one in four Americans believe they know someone killed by the Covid vaccine. He also claimed more than half of Americans also believe the vaccine was injuring people. Mr. Kennedy appointed two new members to the vaccine committee in January. Both are obstetrician-gynecologists who have expressed skepticism over the vaccines. One appointee, Kimberly Biss, a physician from St. Petersburg, Florida, called the vaccine industry “disgusting” and described herself as an “anti-vaxxer.” Ms. Biss said during a 2022 podcast interview that, “prior to Covid, I was not an anti-vaxxer, but I am now because I’ve gone down the rabbit hole.”In December, a leaked Food and Drug Administration memo claimed that there were at least 10 children who died “after and because of receiving” the Covid vaccine. That number, however, came from a self-reporting system and there was no evidence provided that any of the deaths were conclusively linked to vaccinations.The claims in the memo have been criticized by 12 former FDA commissioners. They wrote an opinion piece for the New England Journal of Medicine saying the FDA was undermining a regulatory model “designed to ensure vaccine safety, effectiveness, and availability.”A group of Democratic-led states filed suit this week against Mr. Kennedy and the Centers for Disease control for “gutting” recommended childhood vaccines with the new immunization schedule.

Anti-Vax RFK Jr. Panel Seeks To Expand Its Remit With Discussion of Covid Vaccine Injuries

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