Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has added five new members to a scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines Americans should take and when, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday.
The announcement came three days before the panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, was scheduled to meet. The members are expected to decide on guidelines for important vaccines, including the shots for COVID-19 and hepatitis B.
Insurance companies and government programs such as Medicaid will be required to cover the vaccinations they recommend.
“ACIP safeguards the health of Americans by issuing objective, evidence-based vaccine recommendations,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Its new members bring diverse expertise that strengthens the committee and ensures it fulfills its mission with transparency, independence, and gold-standard science.”
Like other members currently on the committee, some of the new additions have expressed skepticism about vaccines or vaccine mandates.
The committee’s new members are:
— Dr. Evelyn Griffin, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist in Louisiana who was among the first gynecologic surgeons to perform robotic-assisted procedures in the United States. In a Louisiana House of Representatives hearing in 2021, Griffin questioned the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
— Catherine M. Stein, an epidemiology professor at Case Western Reserve University who has studied tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. In 2022, she called for an end to vaccine mandates at universities and wrote that such rules were “unethical.”
— Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a cardiologist who has studied heart inflammation, or myocarditis — a rare side effect known to be associated with COVID-19 vaccines. In a 2024 hearing on vaccine safety led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., he said that getting a COVID vaccine increased the risk of developing the disease.
— Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist and a director at AscensionRx, the pharmacy service for the nonprofit Catholic health system.
— Dr. Raymond Pollak, a surgeon and transplant specialist who has led several federally funded studies and clinical trials.
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