Pressure builds on Kennedy’s vaccine panel ahead of first meeting

By Sarah Owermohle, Meg Tirrell, CNN

(CNN) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday launched a fresh interrogation into federal health officials’ decision to dismiss more than a dozen appointed vaccine experts, amid building concern over a meeting this week that could see Covid-19 and influenza vaccines thrown into question.

The Massachusetts Democrat dispatched a letter to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., exclusively obtained by CNN, about the agency’s abrupt dismissal of 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the appointment of eight new members two days later.

Her letter comes hours after Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, called for officials to postpone the vaccine meeting amid concerns it could further erode Americans’ confidence in vaccine safety.

Kennedy appeared Tuesday morning before the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee to testify on the administration’s proposed 2026 budget. The hearing began with committee Democrats also questioning his ACIP actions.

The dismissal of ACIP members makes clear that Kennedy does not intend to uphold his commitment to senators during the confirmation process that he would not take away Americans’ access to vaccines, Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, said.

Pallone, the highest ranking Democrat on the committee, called for Kennedy to appear before the panel again “very soon” for an oversight hearing on the “unprecedented and troubling chaos” created around the vaccine panel and vaccine access.

The committee traditionally advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on recommendations for who should get vaccines, and when. The CDC’s directives shape doctors’ recommendations and insurers’ coverage of vaccinations.

Kennedy, when removing the recent members, stated that the committee has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and failed to scrutinize safety concerns.

But the eight replacements, Warren wrote, are rife with conflicts of interest themselves — and new ACIP members’ conflict of interest disclosures have not yet been posted on the CDC’s web site.

Warren’s letter mentioned Dr. Robert Malone, who has advocated against mRNA vaccines and Covid-19 measures. Warren stated in her letter that his Substack, promulgating those theories, “at one point was raking in around $31,200 in monthly revenue,” raising conflict of interest concerns.

Warren also highlighted new ACIP appointee Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a longtime friend of National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya — and his co-author on the Great Barrington Declaration — which argued for relaxed lockdown measures for young people.

She noted that both Malone and Kulldorff have served as paid witnesses against vaccine manufacturers in recent years, raising concerns about conflicts of interest on the vaccine advisory panel.

The senator further flagged Dr. Vicky Pebsworth, an appointee on the board of the vaccine-critical National Vaccine Information Center and Dr. James Pagano, someone “who does not appear to have any training in infectious disease or vaccinology.”

Warren also questioned the current status of Dr. Michael Ross, who the secretary described, in his announcement, as working at George Washington University and the Virginia Commonwealth University. Both universities have told CNN that the obstetrician and gynecologist had not worked for the institutions for several years; he most recently has worked in private equity and at a Maryland-based biotech startup.

The senator wrote that Kennedy “hand-picked” these new members “to further [his] anti-vaccine agenda.” Warren has raised questions before about Kennedy’s own conflicts of interest, including financial interest in vaccine litigation, saying they’re “not fully resolved.” Kennedy has that he’d divest his interest in the case, involving the HPV vaccine Gardasil, to an adult son — a step Democratic senators said was inadequate.

Warren requested a response from Kennedy by July 8.

Warren’s letter arrives as consternation stirs about the panel’s meeting, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, which includes discussions about Covid-19 vaccines and a resurrected debate about thimerosal in flu shots. The preservative is used in multi-dose vials to prevent microbial growth, but was removed from most shots decades ago because of concerns that it contains a form of mercury. Subsequent studies showed thimerosal wasn’t linked to neurodevelopmental issues, including autism.

Cassidy, chairman of the Senate’s health committee, also raised alarms on Monday night. The senator publicly called for HHS to delay ACIP’s meeting, writing that some of the new appointees “lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them.”

The panel’s meeting should be postponed until they are fully staffed, “with more robust and balanced representation—as required by law—including those with more direct relevant expertise,” he wrote.

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