{"id":163367,"date":"2025-12-01T22:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/163367\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:47:10","slug":"cdc-vaccine-committee-chair-leaves-for-new-hhs-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/163367\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC vaccine committee chair leaves for new HHS job"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s controversial vaccine advisory committee will be meeting later this week under a new chairperson, federal officials announced Monday.<\/p>\n

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

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

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tExperts say top FDA official\u2019s claim that Covid vaccines caused kids\u2019 deaths requires more evidence<\/a><\/p>\n

Kennedy has remade the committee<\/p>\n

The committee makes recommendations to the director of the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0on 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.<\/p>\n

Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation\u2019s top health official,\u00a0fired<\/a>\u00a0the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and\u00a0replaced it<\/a>\u00a0with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. He also named Kulldorff as chairman.<\/p>\n

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

At a June meeting, the panel recommended that a preservative called\u00a0thimerosal<\/a>\u00a0be removed from doses of flu vaccine even though some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm.<\/p>\n

In September, the group recommended\u00a0new restrictions<\/a>\u00a0on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox as well as measles, mumps and rubella. The panel also took the\u00a0unprecedented step<\/a>\u00a0of not recommending COVID-19 vaccinations \u2014 not even for high-risk populations like seniors \u2014 instead making it a matter of personal choice.<\/p>\n

Several doctors\u2019 groups said the changes were not based on good evidence, and advised doctors and patients to\u00a0follow guidance<\/a>\u00a0that was previously in place.<\/p>\n

Kulldorff is moving to an HHS role<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tWhy my colleagues and I are undertaking an independent review of the hepatitis B birth dose<\/a><\/p>\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.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

During his time as ACIP chair, the committee abandoned its\u00a0traditional<\/a>\u00a0\u201cevidence-to-recommendation\u201d framework, which involved many months of analysis and discussion before proposals came before the full committee for a vote.<\/p>\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<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

Committee is expected to vote on hepatitis shots<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n

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

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

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\/
\n\t\t\t\tSTAT Plus: Dropping hepatitis B shots for newborns would ignore history and endanger children, scientists warn<\/a><\/p>\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).<\/p>\n

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

\u2014 Mike Stobbe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s controversial vaccine advisory committee will be meeting later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[8325,134,527,40330,111,139,69,3059],"class_list":{"0":"post-163367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cdc","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-hhs","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-vaccines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}