RFK Jr. forced to withdraw charter that opened CDC panel to anti-vaccine quacks
Charter would have expanded member eligibility and focused on alleged injuries.
A revised charter document for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's influential vaccine advisory committee has been withdrawn by the Health Department over an administrative error, according to a notice published in the Federal Register Tuesday.
The charter's revisions under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have allowed Kennedy to appoint dubiously qualified anti-vaccine allies to advise the CDC. It also would have directed the CDC panel to focus on alleged vaccine injuries and risks and welcomed fringe groups and anti-vaccine organizations to participate in developing federal vaccine policy.
Kennedy's move to reshape the CDC panel—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP—came amid Kennedy's many other attempts to undermine it, as well as a court order to undo that meddling.