Seventeen vaccine experts who were dismissed from a federal advisory panel last week say they are worried that recent moves by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will destabilize vaccine policy in the US and jeopardize access to lifesaving immunizations.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to overhaul a key committee on vaccine policy has left the country’s vaccine infrastructure “critically weakened,” former members of the group said in a piece published in JAMA on Monday.

The new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey found adults divided over the health secretary but with a bare majority viewing him favorably.

Among the eight people Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced would make up his new group of outside vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are an emergency physician who posted Islamophobic commentary on social media and two doctors who were paid to provide expert testimony in trials against a vaccine maker.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made several false claims about vaccines in a Thursday appearance on Fox News.

Offit has served on committees that advise the federal government on the use of vaccines. Earlier this week, Kennedy ignited controversy for dismissing all the members of one advising the CDC.

A day after abruptly firing a key vaccine panel, RFK Jr. said he would reconstitute it with “highly credentialed" experts amid backlash.

The American Public Health Association called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s move to overhaul a vaccine advisory board a “coup” that will harm the health of the