Health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed five more people to the federal advisory committee that sets national vaccination recommendations. Like the existing members, the new appointees have questionable qualifications for being on the panel, and many have expressed anti-vaccine views. In June, Kennedy purged all 17 highly qualified and thoroughly vetted members of the committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on setting vaccine policy. Kennedy quickly repopulated ACIP with seven hand-picked allies, most of whom also have questionable qualifications and have expressed anti-vaccine or contrarian public health views. Two members, including the new chair, have also been paid to testify against the vaccine makers in cases claiming they caused harms, a clear conflict of interest. Here are the new members: Catherine Stein, a professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health. As Ars previously reported, Stein has advocated against vaccine mandates and wrote a 2021 article arguing that people should not be afraid of contracting COVID-19 because: “Our Lord has given us a mission to share the gospel. If we live in fear of death, that weakens our testimony. Remember, the Lord Jesus did not fear lepers, and leprosy was (and continues to be) a highly contagious infectious disease.” Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is not a highly contagious disease, and about 95 percent of people are naturally immune. The Washington Post noted that in written testimony to the Ohio legislature in 2021, Stein falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines kill and severely harm people. “Some people have lost their lives, or their lives have been forever changed, after taking the vaccine,” she wrote.
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