Quick Take: RFK Jr. and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

Trust the Experts: They are watching out for your health!

Yesterday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. As a pediatrician and former Deputy Director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as a former Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization, I find this decision deeply troubling.

From what I understand, Secretary Kennedy believes the committee members had conflicts of interest. But I know several of them personally. Over the years, I’ve turned to them for guidance, not just while I was practicing clinical medicine, but also during my time as New York State’s Commissioner of Health. Their integrity is unquestionable. These are people who have dedicated their lives to protecting children, families, and communities. They’ve edited The Red Book, a gold standard for pediatric infectious disease. They’ve led divisions in major public health departments, chaired divisions of infectious disease, served as dean or associate dean at medical schools, chaired American Academy of Pediatrics committees. These are not bureaucrats; they are public servants in the truest sense.

Yes, politics plays a role in Washington. But public health must remain above politics. This is not about partisanship. It is about protecting Americans. Vaccination policy, especially, is too important to be shaped by ideology. I know there are other highly qualified experts across this country. But when the Secretary appoints new members, I urge him to draw from that same pool of trusted professionals and not from those who simply reflect a personal agenda.

This isn’t just a bureaucratic shake-up. It has real consequences. And if we let politics take over the work of science and public health the cost won’t be measured in headlines. It will be measured in lives.