Kennedy appoints CDC panel members who have criticized vaccines & spread misinformation

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

NEW YORK — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management.

...

The new appointees include Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, who has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation.

 

Another is Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic as he relayed conspiracy theories around the outbreak and the vaccines that followed. He has appeared on podcasts and other conservative news outlets where he’s promoted unproven and alternative treatments for measles and COVID-19.

 

(more)

 

Washington Post

https://archive.ph/LG0ZV

 

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

RFK Jr. names new slate of vaccine advisers after purging CDC panel

...

The new members are Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Cody Meissner, Dr. Michael A. Ross, Dr. James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth.

 

"Public health advocates are wary. "Kennedy did not pick people with strong, current expertise in vaccines," says Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Law, San Francisco, who studies vaccine policy. "It tells me that Kennedy is setting up a committee that would be skeptical of vaccines, and possibly willing to implement an anti-vaccine agenda."

 

Kennedy's new selections have varied backgrounds, though many rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they criticized government policies on school closures and lockdowns, and the mRNA vaccines. For example, Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and biostatistician, helped write the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, then a Stanford University professor who is now director of the National Institutes of Health. That open letter questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Kulldorff declined to comment when reached by NPR."

 

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https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5430870/cdc-vaccine-experts-rfk-jr

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

RFK Jr. names some vaccine critics to key CDC committee after ousting entire panel

...

"Retsef Levi – a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who has also served as faculty director of the school’s food supply chain analytics and sensing initiative. 

...

Meanwhile, Levi slammed mRNA vaccines in a post on X in 2023, which was still pinned to the top of his account Wednesday afternoon.

 

“The evidence is mounting and indisputable that MRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people,” Levi wrote. “We have to stop giving them immediately!”

 

(more)

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/11/rfk-jr-malone-cdc-vaccine-committee.html

 

[dinsdale]

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Kennedy's new selections have varied backgrounds, though many rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they criticized government policies on school closures and lockdowns, and the mRNA vaccines. For example, Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and biostatistician, helped write the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, then a Stanford University professor who is now director of the National Institutes of Health. That open letter questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Good. The whole pandemic reaction was not science driven. Anyone who questioned the narrative were conspiracy theorists. Time for real independent science to formulate health policy not politicians and bureaucrats.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Kennedy Announces Eight New Members of C.D.C. Vaccine Advisory Panel

The health secretary promised not to pick “anti-vaxxers.” But some public health leaders accused him of breaking his word.

 

"Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight doctors and researchers, including four who have spoken out against vaccination in some way, to replace roughly half the members he fired from an expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

...

In a post on X late Tuesday night, a day after he removed the panel members, Mr. Kennedy promised he would not appoint “ideological anti-vaxxers.”  After the new list was announced, infectious disease and vaccine experts immediately accused the health secretary of breaking his word.

...

Richard H. Hughes IV, who teaches vaccine law at George Washington University Law School...said three of the new members are “legitimate physicians” who have “no discernible expertise” in immunology or vaccines. But he characterized the remaining four as “Covid-19 deniers, skeptics and outright anti-vaccine individuals.”

 

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/us/politics/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccine-panel.html

 

 

 

[johng]

Good !  👍  Replace all the big pharma bought and paid for shills.

Stringent independent testing and long term trials for any new "vaccine“

retest of all the existing “vaccines“ and evaluation of historical efficacy. 

Extra long trials for novel mRNA anythings. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel. Here's who's on the list.

...

Kennedy's picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, known as ACIP. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary's approval. 

...

The picks announced by Kennedy include some close allies of the secretary and his inner circle. Several have a history of criticizing vaccine recommendations or questioning their safety.

 

"The speed with which these members were selected, and the lack of transparency in the process, does not help to restore public confidence and trust, and contributes to confusion and uncertainty," Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said in a statement.

 

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-cdc-vaccine-advisory-panel-names/

 

 

 

 

[NoDisplayName]

12 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel.

 

Why not, seeing as he's already going to be having his brain trust publish their junk science in their own junk science journal, just like creationists.......

 

“We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, JAMA [the Journal of the American Medical Association], New England Journal of Medicine, and those other journals because they’re all corrupt,”

.....and we’re going to create our own journals inhouse,” he said. These are “going to become the preeminent journals, because if you get [NIH] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate …

 

https://www.bmj.com/content/389/bmj.r1110

 

"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked because of the testing.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too."

 

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

 

Sciencism!

[Stocky]

Make Measles Great Again!

 

 

The US is so bonkers nothing surprises me anymore.

[johng]

3 minutes ago, Stocky said:

Make Measles Great Again

In the “old days" many went to 

Measles and Chicken pocks parties

kids would get the “infection“ recover and then have natural immunity... amazing!  

[Stocky]

1 minute ago, johng said:

In the “old days" many went to 

Measles and Chicken pocks parties

kids would get the “infection“ recover and then have natural immunity... amazing!  

In the "old days" we had poliomyelitis, you're nostalgic for that too?!

[bubblegum]

In those same days they hung negro's from a tree. Proud of that?

[johng]

2 minutes ago, Stocky said:

In the "old days" we had poliomyelitis, you're nostalgic for that too?!

Nope  and you know of course that the major cause of Polio nowadays is the from so called "vaccine"

[johng]

1 minute ago, bubblegum said:

In those same days they hung negro's from a tree. Proud of that?

The "Democrats“ might be.

[bubblegum]

4 minutes ago, johng said:

The "Democrats“ might be.

Thats before your war.

[bubblegum]

24 minutes ago, Stocky said:

Make Measles Great Again!

 

 

The US is so bonkers nothing surprises me anymore.

I think taking a chlorine/coke is their solution.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The politician with no medical expertise who's now mis-directing U.S. vaccine policy. Where's his brain now???  Health issues, memory loss, mental fog, mercury poisoning!!!

 

Kennedy seems to be saying he's recovered from all of the above. But I'd say his history and track record of public actions & comments suggest he's still a few cards short of a full hand.

 

 

 

 

NYT: RFK Jr. says worm ‘got into my brain and ate a portion of it’

May 8, 2024

(CNN) —  Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. experienced a series of health issues in recent years, including an abnormality that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and then died, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. [emphasis added]

 

In 2010, Kennedy, now 70, experienced severe memory loss and mental fog, he said in a deposition two years later. According to the Times, he consulted top neurologists familiar with the medical history of his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had died of brain cancer in 2009. A New York doctor, after reviewing a scan of his brain, told him that his health issues could be “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Kennedy said in the 2012 deposition, which concerned a divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. Robert Kennedy said at the time that his earning power had been negatively affected by the cognitive issues, the Times reported. [emphasis added]

 

Around the same time, the Times said, he suffered from mercury poisoning, which can lead to neurological issues such as loss of peripheral vision, muscle weakness and issues with movement, hearing and speech, as well as memory loss. Kennedy told the paper he has recovered from the memory loss and brain fogginess and that the parasite did not require treatment. [emphasis added]

 

(more)

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/rfk-jr-mercury-poisoning-brain-parasite

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Of course, who would ever say they shouldn't be accepting medical advice from RFK Jr as Donald Trump's U.S. HHS secretary?   HE!!!, for one.

 

RFK Jr. says people shouldn't take his medical advice when asked about vaccines at hearing

"When asked hypothetically if he would vaccinate his children today for measles during a House hearing Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said "probably," but added he doesn't think people should be taking medical advice from him. [emphasis added]

 

"My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant," he said in response to the question from Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin during the House Appropriations Committee hearing. "I don't want to seem like I'm being evasive, but I don't think people should be taking medical advice from me." [emphasis added]

 

When pressed, he repeated he didn't want to give advice to other people."

 

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-medical-advice-vaccine-question-hearing/

 

So, don't listen to medical advice from RFK Jr. And his opinions about vaccines are "irrelevant."

 

But then, somehow, he's qualified or capable of being the one person to unilaterally appoint a bunch of anti-vaxers, vaccine skeptics and COVID minimizers to head the CDC advisory panel that helps set U.S. vaccine policy???  Instead of the normal and past pattern of having non-partisan career experts in the CDC consider, vet and recommend panel members.

 

YEESH!!!

 

 

 

[dinsdale]

A more balanced view (than that above) on the pork tapeworm that infected Kennedy.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/08/brain-worm-rfk-jr-parasitic-infection-not-uncommon/

 

 

[rattlesnake]

Love this. It's Christmas every day at the moment. I recall three years ago, when my messages were removed from this forum for simply mentioning Malone's name. How fast the Overton window is shifting…

[johng]

42 minutes ago, bubblegum said:

Thats before your war.

My war ??

[johng]

28 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

RFK Jr. says people shouldn't take his medical advice when asked about vaccines at hearing

Yesh he is telling you to "do your own research"   

then make up your own mind...if you have one !!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This is the type of misinformation nonsense that RFK Jr. is stacking the CDC's vaccines advisory panel with:

The Myths Promoted by a New CDC Vaccine Advisor

Dr. Robert Malone has promoted 13 provably false claims from NewsGuard’s database

Jun 13, 2025

COVID Vax Can Cause Cancer, Killed 17 Million Among Hoaxes Advanced by New CDC Vaccine Advisor Robert Malone

"One of the U.S. government’s new advisors on vaccine recommendations, Dr. Robert Malone, is a frequent source of vaccine misinformation, including the false claims that COVID-19 vaccines can cause cancer and increase the risk of stillbirths. Indeed, Malone has personally pushed 13 claims from NewGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints database of provably false claims. [emphasis added]

...

As noted above, NewsGuard found that Malone initiated or promoted 13 of the provably false claims on health topics in NewsGuard’s catalog of False Claims. NewsGuard left voicemails and sent emails to Malone and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeking comment on the claims described below, but did not receive a response.

 

The 13 False Claims initiated or promoted by Malone are presented here in reverse chronological order:

 

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[the full list of Malone's false claims is presented in the following weblink. I am prevented from posting the details of them here by the forum's rules limiting fair use quoting)

 

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/the-myths-promoted-by-new-cdc-vaccine-advisor-robert-malone

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

But Malone is hardly alone. RFK Jr. and the anti-vax group he founded, Children's Health Defense, have an even LONGER list of documented false claims that have been researched by fact-checking group NewsGuard, as follows:

 

RFK Jr. Healthcare Claims Depository

Provably False Claims

NewsGuard has identified 106 different false claims promoted by Kennedy.

 

Nov 11, 2024

 

NewsGuard has identified 106 different provably false narratives, dating to 2016, that have been advanced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the anti-vaccine nonprofit he founded, Children’s Health Defense.  [emphasis added]

 

Many of the claims relate to vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic, bird flu, and food safety. More than half focus on COVID vaccines, including claims that these vaccines have caused millions of deaths, as well as cases of leprosy, miscarriages, and cancer. Kennedy has also claimed that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not cause AIDS and that cell phone use damages human DNA.

 

Below is the list of all 106 of the false claims that NewsGuard has identified and debunked in its Misinformation Fingerprint catalog.

 

1. Vaccines cause autism
2. HIV does not cause AIDS
3. All vaccines can “shed,” meaning vaccinated individuals will infect others with the disease
4. No vaccines have been tested in placebo-controlled clinical trials 
5. Fluoride in drinking water is dangerous
6. Cell phone use damages your DNA and can cause cancer
7. WiFi is bad for your health
8. COVID-19 vaccines are linked to miscarriages
9. Vaccines cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
10. Multiple childhood vaccinations can cause ADHD...

 

(The full list of Kennedy's many false claims is continued on the following weblink. Again, my quoting of content here is limited by the forum's fair use quoting rule:)

 

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/provably-false-claims