{"id":163198,"date":"2025-12-02T00:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/163198\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T00:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T00:20:09","slug":"chairman-of-vaccine-committee-leaves-for-new-hhs-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/163198\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairman of vaccine committee leaves for new HHS job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s<\/a> controversial vaccine advisory committee will be meeting later this week under a new chairperson, federal officials announced Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Martin Kulldorff is leaving the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to take a leadership role within the Department of Health and Human Services<\/a>, officials said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dr. Kirk Milhoan, who has blamed vaccines for causing cardiovascular disease, will become the new chair. He had been appointed to the committee in September.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later this week, the committee is scheduled to discuss the pediatric vaccine schedule and hepatitis B shots given to newborns.\n <\/p>\n

\n HHS officials issued a press release praising Kulldorff and his work while leading the panel but did not answer additional questions about the changes. Kulldorff did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n The committee makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> on how already-approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors almost always adopted the committee\u2019s recommendations, which were widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation\u2019s top health official, fired the entire 17-member<\/a> panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices<\/a>. He also named Kulldorff as chairman.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under Kulldorff\u2019s leadership, the group made several decisions that angered major medical groups.\n <\/p>\n

\n At a June meeting, the panel recommended that a preservative called thimerosal<\/a> be removed from doses of flu vaccine even though some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm.\n <\/p>\n

\n In September, the group recommended new restrictions<\/a> on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox as well as measles, mumps and rubella. The panel also took the unprecedented step<\/a> of not recommending COVID-19 vaccinations \u2014 not even for high-risk populations like seniors \u2014 instead making it a matter of personal choice.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several doctors\u2019 groups said the changes were not based on good evidence, and advised doctors and patients to follow guidance<\/a> that was previously in place.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kulldorff\u2019s departure leaves the vaccine committee with 11 members.\n <\/p>\n

\n It will now be led by Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who with his wife operates a medical missionary organization called For Hearts and Souls. He appeared at a 2024 congressional hearing at which he said an increase in cardiovascular disease in older teens and young adults should be attributed to vaccines.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kulldorff is a Swedish-born biostatistician who was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing irreparable harm.\n <\/p>\n

\n During his time as ACIP chair, the committee abandoned its traditional \u201cevidence-to-recommendation\u201d<\/a> framework, which involved many months of analysis and discussion before proposals came before the full committee for a vote.\n <\/p>\n

\n In his new role, Kulldorff will become chief science officer within the HHS planning and evaluation office. Officials described the office as the department\u2019s \u201cin-house think tank.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI look forward to contributing to the science-based public health policies that will Make America Healthy Again,\u201d Kulldorff said in the HHS press release.\n <\/p>\n

\n The vaccine committee is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Atlanta, with a vote expected on whether to change the recommendation on shots for newborns against hepatitis B, which can cause serious liver infections.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it\u2019s unclear exactly what the committee plans to vote on. HHS officials have not responded to repeated questions seeking details.\n <\/p>\n

\n The current recommendations call for a first dose to be given to newborns within 24 hours of birth.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last week, 15 state governors submitted public comments suggesting the committee was hurting public trust in vaccines and the ability of people to get affordable shots.\n <\/p>\n

\n In adults, the virus is spread through sex or through sharing needles while injecting drugs. But the virus can also be passed to a baby from an infected mother, and as many as 90% of infected infants go on to have chronic infections that can lead to a lifetime of health issues.\n <\/p>\n

\n A hepatitis B vaccine was first licensed in the U.S. in 1981. In 2005, the ACIP recommended a dose within 24 hours of birth for all medically stable infants who weigh at least 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms).\n <\/p>\n

\n The infant shots are 85% to 95% effective in preventing chronic hepatitis B infections, studies have shown.\n <\/p>\n

\n The vaccinations are considered a success, and experts say no recent peer-reviewed research shows any safety problem with giving kids the shots on their first day of life.\n <\/p>\n

\n But in September, Kennedy\u2019s ACIP members discussed whether to recommend delaying that initial vaccination \u2014 something doctors and parents already can choose to do. The panel pulled back from taking a vote amid criticism from independent pediatric and infectious disease specialists who say the vaccine is safe and has helped infant infections drop sharply.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s controversial vaccine advisory committee will be meeting later this week under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-163198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}