HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. places anti-vaxxers in control of U.S. vaccine policy, slandering an actual expert along the way.

All 17 members of ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, have just published an article in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) highlighting their experiences on the committee and their grave concerns about their recent firings by RFK,

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.

Multiple new members have voiced anti-vaccine views that are not based in scientific evidence. Their actions could shape the way insurers, doctors and the public make decisions about immunizations.

CMS tried to fight DHS’s request, arguing that they’d be violating the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974, and in general going against “longstanding policy” of not giving people’s personal Medicaid data to a department that has nothing to do with Medicaid just because they are immigrants.