By now it is clear to most folks that Secretary RFK Jr, in firing all the current members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, is out to destroy ACIP as we know it.
Dozens of medical and public health professional groups have called out Secretary RFK Jr’s move as bad, dangerous, and unscrupulous, etc.
RFK Jr Moves to Destroy ACIP
As he moves to destroy ACIP as we know it, members of Congress have already called on him to reinstate the 17 ACIP committee members he fired.
“These actions upend ACIP’s thoughtful, evidence-based decision-making and will weave unfounded or disproven theories into what has traditionally been a science-based process trusted by our health care providers. Conducting immunization reviews takes months of deliberation and review of research, and your unilateral decision to abruptly end ACIP’s existing work is detrimental. It has become abundantly clear that your intent is to sow doubt and fear in the American public that will cost lives. With an ongoing measles outbreak and the decline of routine child immunizations, we will see the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases across the country. Your politicization of vaccines has made American families less safe and will return the US to an era before mass vaccination prevented millions of infections and early deaths.”
Congresswoman Schrier Demands Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Immediately Reinstate All Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in New Letter
Others have called on RFK Jr to resign or be fired!
A call that would not have been necessary if Senator Cassidy had not voted for Kennedy in the first place!
A vote that was clearly a mistake, as Secretary RFK Jr continues to mislead Senator Cassidy and the rest of us with his misinformation and propaganda.
Stanley Plotkin Responds to RFK Jr’s Anti-Vaccine Screed
Misinformation that has become so dangerous that Stanley Plotkin felt it necessary to respond to Senator Cassidy.
Dear Senator Cassidy:
Taking up your request, here are my comments on Kennedy’s screed.Par 3- It is true that an American child receives many vaccines. Not mentioned are the diseases that those children no longer get compared to when I was a child, and almost died from pertussis, pneumococcal pneumonia and influenza encephalopathy (I am not exaggerating). He also says that they were not tested against placebo. See below.
Most of his post on X revolves around the definition of a placebo. What Kennedy wants is comparing vaccine to water. What he fails to understand is that the material in placebos are small amounts of substances that may cause mild reactions, and that the objective of a controlled study is to determine whether the vaccine itself added to those common substances causes additional and serious reactions. How could you do a controlled study if the placebo recipients know immediately that they have not received the vaccine because there is no local redness or irritation? Under those circumstances no valid study of safety or efficacy would be possible. Kennedy refers to Salk’s famous study that led to control of polio, in which he used a placebo that was the same as the vaccine except for the inactivated viruses. What scientist would have accepted a placebo containing only water?
Also, he seems to criticize trials in which an improved vaccine is compared to an older vaccine that was shown to be effective in order to show better efficacy and equal safety. How else could you show an improved vaccine is better?
I won’t bore you with more. Kennedy has never had a scientific education and is mouthing idiotic statements that unfortunately will end up hurting all of us, particularly children. His publication on X is just another piece of garbage on that method of communication.
Stanley
Stanley Plotkin responds to Senator Cassidy
A response that will hopefully call more folks to action, as RFK Jr has already added ACIP members who are clearly anti-vaccine.
His new picks include Vicky Pebsworth Debold, a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, Martin Kulldorff, a co-author of the Great Barrington Debate, and Robert Malone, who has downplayed measles outbreaks and the importance of seasonal flu shots.
Of note, both Robert Malone and Martin Kulldorff were against vaccinating and protecting kids against COVID.
As was Cody Meissner, but he at least thought that COVID vaccines should be available for high risk kids.
Then there is Retsef Levi, who greatly overstated the risks of myocarditis from COVID vaccines and called for people to stop using them!
Lastly, Vicky Pebsworth Debold believes that her autistic child was injured by the vaccines he received when he was 15 months old.
“For those of us within the vaccine-injured communities who are fighting on behalf of our children for the basic human right to make voluntary, informed vaccination decisions that are based on sound science rather than ideology, it is a battle. And it is personal. Like the victims of the civil war described in Sunday Bloody Sunday, many lives have been lost, our families torn apart, and everyday there’s unbelievable news where indeed, “fact” is fiction and TV becomes reality.”
Vicky Pebsworth Debold
A belief that will surely make it hard for her to be an objective member of the ACIP committee.
“In the late 1990s, Vicky Debold, a nurse in Pennsylvania, grew concerned when her young son Sam stopped trying to walk, developed severe diarrhea, and lost his curiosity about people. Devastated when a doctor told her Sam was autistic and further dismayed by local support groups where she found parents who “seemed resigned to their fates,” Debold got busy. An Internet search introduced her to Andrew Wakefield, whose theories linking the MMR vaccine to intestinal disorders and autism were gaining currency among many parents of autistic children. When she subsequently met Wakefield at a conference, she was gratified that he took her concerns seriously and suggested some next steps: an X-ray, maybe a colonoscopy, a visit with a gastroenterologist. Unlike other doctors, who had no answers, Wakefield offered hope. Even if this hope came via costly, invasive tests and even if he was scapegoating the MMR vaccine, can you really blame parents for listening?”
How Sane Parents Got Paranoid About Vaccines
A pick that makes it easy to see that this first group of ACIP appointees as folks who will almost certainly rubber stamp RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine agenda.
Picks that make it easy to see that Secretary RFK Jr must go!
More on ACIP
Last Updated on June 11, 2025