RFK Jr. just fired the entire CDC vaccine advisory panel—and it’s just the beginning

With the gatekeepers gone, the path is clear for a new era of vaccine oversight.

The news keeps coming—and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wasting no time. He promised a shake-up of America’s public health institutions, and now he’s delivering.

All 17 members of the CDC’s influential vaccine advisory panel—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—have been fired.

Each received a formal termination notice from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), signed by Kennedy himself.

He announced that removing the current members was necessary to allow the administration to appoint new individuals aligned with its policies—something that wouldn’t have been possible until 2028 without this step.

ACIP is made up of external experts, tasked with providing independent advice to the CDC on vaccine use.

In theory, the panel is meant to offer objective, science-based advice. But in practice, says Kennedy, it has become “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

He noted that the panel has “never recommended against a vaccine—even those later withdrawn for safety reasons.”

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, Kennedy argued that ACIP has been compromised by entrenched conflicts of interest.

“Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines,” he wrote.