Public opinion on RFK Jr.'s decision to remove the CDC's vaccine panel is polarized. While some support the move to eliminate conflicts of interest and enhance transparency, many view it as undermining public health by dismissing scientific consensus. Concerns about RFK Jr.'s motivations, credibility, and potential adverse effects on vaccine policies are prevalent, with fears of increased misinformation affecting public trust in vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Public Health Officials

Withhold the narcan during his next heroin OD

AlchemistRx

What will this do to my metrics if there is no 25-26 flu vaccine? Lulz

PmYourSpaghettiHoles

Utterly disgraceful. He needs to be removed. The damage from these decisions will take years to reverse.

keepingitcivil

When is this season going to end? Its not funny anymore

Netch1615

FAMUgolfer

We're just going back to ancient times.  1 step forward, 5 steps back.  Kinda like our profession.  Just sit back and enjoy the circus.

AnyOtherJobWillDo

Honestly what does this do? Flu shots still exist.

Bluetowelboy

Its job security for us down the line ya'll

Hugh_Mungus94

Well, we're cooked. I mean we were already cooked and knew that. But just emphasizing again: we are COOKED

pxincessofcolor

We really do have some tough times ahead of us in this United States. 

So much is so wrong right now.

drlx2

Regular_Yellow710

Seeing the entire CDC vaccine panel get booted is beyond alarming. It makes me wonder how we’re supposed to trust any official guidance this fall. What scares me most is whether my kid can grow up in anything close to a healthy environment. He already picked up the flu at school early this year, and these days just leaving the house feels like spinning the virus roulette wheel. So we run our own mini safety routine: sanitizer clipped to backpacks, masks in crowded spots, a small HEPA humming in the living room, and [at-home rapid tests](https://ihealthlabs.com/products/ihealth-covid-19-antigen-rapid-test?utm_source=Reddit&amp;utm_medium=LMG&amp;utm_campaign=COV) whenever someone gets the sniffles. I’d love to ease up, but moves like this make it clear the official playbook isn’t exactly looking out for families like mine.

lmgforwork

The US government (outside of healthcare as well) has only worked in the interest of a select few, and this change will please a select few people and leave many carrying the bag. 

DocumentNo2992

Welp, as a country, we voted for this so now we gotta deal with this! 😞

Drpillking

You can guarantee that no new vaccines are coming to market in next 4 years and some may even be pulled off thus quickening the death of retail pharmacy 

Strict_Ruin395

There's no info on who he's going to appoint...its too soon to know what this will mean.

aalovvera

I’ve been thinking about going to pharmacy school but am worried the education I’ll get is going to be viewed as less valuable due to the removal of the science from our scientifically studied, evidence-based medicine. 

Also worried that if I don’t start now, the few remaining professors who really know how to teach well won’t be in the profession anymore because of our government fucking *everyone* with the dry sandpaper that is RFK Jr.’s presence.

Out_of_Fawkes

Thanks for posting OP. Hadn’t seen this yet

allison73099

And now we see the downstream effects of forcing the COVID shot on everyone. That said I assumed they would have just made vaccination status a protected class rather than well... this.

All you can do is protect yourself and continue to go off the old CDC guidelines.

Barmacist

I guess they conveniently forgot that he will be reconstituting the committee with people with fewer conflicts of interest. The op-ed he wrote that is linked in the article is very reasonable - but knee jerk idiotic response always seem to be Orange man bad so anyone around him must be bad too…:

&gt; Most of ACIP’s members have received substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies, including those marketing vaccines. The problem isn’t necessarily that ACIP members are corrupt. Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it. The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy. The new members won’t directly work for the vaccine industry. They will exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry—unafraid to ask hard questions.

mikehocalate

What a disaster.   All we will have are a bunch of cranks, deniers, and people doing "research" on Youtube.  Basically, this regime wants to kill us all.

Redsmoker37

Oh noes - No more bureaucratic Fauci "experts".  How ever will we survive .....

StevieTank

Anyone who didn’t know before the election what this man with no scientific education and years of carrying on about the risks of vaccines intended to do must be illiterate.

WUMSDoc

Looks like the Covid decisions were just getting started with removing recommendations.

Yourdataisunclean

I feel like American doctors need to seriously get their shit together now and form a barebones, private CDC-alternative for the time being. 

The AMA could have been a great backbone for something like that, but they’d need to have a backbone in the first place.

Papadapalopolous

I have had friends on ACIP.  This is a committee that is really based on good science.  It is well rounded from various societies, the public, industry etc.  When they made a decision it was trustworthy.   I assume now it will be filled with sycophants.

LaudablePus

Welp, time to ignore all vaccination recommendations coming out of the US starting...(checks watch)... two months ago.

evgueni72

The enshittification of America continues unabated.

oldirtyrestaurant

Carl Sagan said it best back in ‘95:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

K1lgoreTr0ut

These are wise clinicians and researchers. I’m pissed off, and you should be too. I’m not much of a political actor, but I’m inclined to write to somebody (for starters). Recommendations from a savvy member of this sub?

LakeSpecialist7633

Is this RFK's pet project to make himself feel better?  Or is he following instructions from higher to do this, and if so, WHY?  What is he benefiting from these changes?  I'm baffled by this ongoing anti-vaccine parade.

IBelieveVeryLittle

At some point we need credential requirements for some parts of the federal government. In the same way that the Federal Reserve has some protection from shifting policymakers or political trends. The reality is that not every federal department should be run by or appointed by an elected official. 

Some departments should be run, exclusively, by competent candidates with expertise commensurate to the appointment. 

The hard part is we cannot appeal to the wisdom of our founders as they could never predict this sort of scenario.

BrobaFett

If you work in medicine and you voted for this: fuck you.

FriedrichHydrargyrum

This is a godd@mn bad place. 

Uuggghhhh. These charlatans are gonna kill us all

RunningFNP

I predicted this before he was even confirmed as HHS chief. He'll replace with his anti-vax cronies. 

I'm on immunosuppressants myself, so I fear for myself as well as my fragile patients. N95s for everyone!

Fuck senator Cassidy. He KNEW this would happen, yet he allowed RFK jr to lie to him and let himself believe it. He had the power to stop him, and he blew it big time. I think I'll send him an FU message to remind him of what shameful thing he did. 

Here's what my approach will be:

*  look to our ID and vaccine specialists for advice on the latest variants and what vaccines work on them, and what vaccine schedules to follow. AND 
* If the proper vaccines are available in the US, then there is nothing to stop us from prescribing them off-label. After all, the alt-med prescribed HCQ and ivermectin off label. We can do it too (those of us in academic peds do it all the time). AND
* If the proper vaccines are not available in the US, then hopefully we can get them elsewhere. Prior to this I would have said we could look to Canada, but of course that avenue is probably not open to us anymore.

NoFlyingMonkeys

Reminder: this is what comes from the old saying that doctors should be above politics. 

Also: 

1) the quacks and psychos never followed it anyway.

2) if you don't speak up, you'll be ignored. Like you are being ignored now.

thenightgaunt

I’m tired of backlash. We get a black president: massive increase in racism and bigotry. We had a world wide pandemic: anti health, anti mask, anti vaccine backlash. BLM protests: massive walk back of civil rights. 

The wacklash is as bad as the initial problem and lasts longer.

SteakandTrach

All this does is give insurance companies an out…

UncutChickn

For additional context, here is an excerpt from a Fierce Healthcare article covering this appalling yet unsurprising event: [link](https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/pharma/rfk-jr-hhs-oust-entire-roster-cdc-vaccine-expert-committee?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=nl&amp;utm_campaign=LS-NL-FiercePharma&amp;oly_enc_id=5455D4840012H7Z). ACIP is the advisory panel in question. 

&gt;Before RFK Jr. was confirmed, Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-Louisiana, who cast a key vote to swing his nomination, [assured](https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-floor-speech-in-support-of-rfk-jr-to-be-hhs-secretary/) the Senate in a floor speech that RFK Jr. pledged to “maintain” the ACIP “without changes" in private conversations.

How shocking that RFK Jr. lied to a US senator! I'm sure he will be held to account for it. (Read this in the most scornful, derisive, sarcastic tone you can conjure.)

My critique of both articles is that they "report" RFK Jr's false statements / outrageous lies, then rebut them later in the article after everyone has stopped reading. It leaves the impression that there is some legitimacy to what he has said, when there is none.

Plenty_of_prepotente

*to restablish confidence in vaccine science?*

are we conceding that the majority in social media = majority in real life?

synchronizedshock

I cannot wait to practice law without a law degree too. I’m suing everyone

brokemed

on the bright side, we're all going to be awesome at LPs!

Make LPs great Again!

Make Americans have Hib Again!

jafferd813

Ugh, when do we get a timeline reset?  I hate it here.

HereForTheBoos1013

SecBalloonDoggies

Sen. Bill Cassidy, are you out there? Thoughts? Surprised?

SaintRGGS

&gt;It is unclear who Kennedy will appoint to the new group.

A bunch of YouTube &amp; TikTok "influencers."  Duh.

Fixed Auto correct. Apologies

Typical_Khanoom

Burning it down for what? Don't break something that hasn't broke down before 2025

ddx-me

We're gonna see Dr. Demon Sperm appointed, aren't we? 

[Dr. Demon Sperm ](https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine/)

IcyChampionship3067

Know this day would come back during the confirmation days, when there was the bs drama about Senator Cassidy voting as a MD with principles. Just like Ernst and Tillis with Hegseth. A whole lot of people need to be voted out for putting the American people at risk. Even if the Democrats are feckless and largely owned by the same people funding the GOP. Sadly so far the consequences have been conjecture but the real world effects are absolutely on the way.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/13/rfk-jr-set-to-face-the-senator-who-grilled-him-00346321

Floridaresearcher

I guess CDC no longer wants to be the CDC

equinsoiocha

We are at the stage where we should no longer expect to receive government backing of scientific or medical advice. Focus on building relationships and trust. We must acknowledge people are free to make bad decisions and will continue to do so

ridukosennin

I'm just a scared hospitalist frantically reviewing all the classic infectious diseases that I never thought would be our problems again...

Obviously, most of us are gonna ignore whatever RFK's CDC says about the vaccines and will continue to recommend/order vaccines.  Patients who were anti-vaccine / on the fence are likely emboldened to ignore those recs.

My question is, how is this going to affect insurance coverage/affordability for the vaccines?

kirklandbranddoctor

Halloween came early…. It’s scary here.

Defiant-Lead6835

The CDC’s international importance and reputation was built upon decades of hard work and trust. Funny how all of that can be swiped off within a few months.

This is opposite of making America great. But I mean that irony has been obvious throughout this administration

excerebro

Once again, I would like to know where the people are who pre-election argued with me that this sort of thing couldn't happen.

This is a real shame. The other shame is the way it is being reported, as if RFK actually has a real point doing this. By putting the truth at the end of the article rather than the beginning, they're pretty much ensuring nobody will read it. Journalism continues to enable this shit to happen.

valiantdistraction

To be replaced by a bag of 17 carrots probably

bahhamburger

I fucking hate it here, trying to get brain drained rn

NickDerpkins

Prudent-Corgi3793

mycatisanorange

Can people share alternative sources besides CDC for vaccination information? Here is mine:

[https://www.immunize.org/](https://www.immunize.org/)

Artistic_Salary8705

The knot in my stomach won't go away. I don't want to do this again.

AkaelaiRez

Yes, I know how the federal health infrastructure is organized (I’m a grown up). I’m talking about CDC vaccine policy per the original post, which is appropriately influenced by FDA, and both fall under HHS. I’m not pretending CMS is unimportant, but the current story is an HHS story.

Which AI do you think will be writing the paper on this one?

Renovatio_


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AutoModerator

Do you think RFK Jr will kill as many people as Trump did during COVID?

livelaughoral

Blue states should still mandate the vaccines for public schools.

10 years from now, the mortality rates will tell the story. But the cost of the truth will be terrible.

muchnycrunchny

He replaced them with Joe Rogan, Alex Jones and Dr. Dre.

nibul83

I hope someone with knowledge of the government in some non-profits are keeping track of all these changes and keeping info on what they can to recover at all after this

nkassis

MTN_explorer619

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In an [op-ed](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-jr-hhs-moves-to-restore-public-trust-in-vaccines-45495112?mod=hp_opin_pos_1) published in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy said he was making the unprecedented move to retire the 17 independent vaccine experts from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices because the panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and has become a “rubber stamp” for vaccines.

Kennedy has long criticized the panel, which makes vaccine recommendations to the CDC director. When the recommendations are approved by the director, they become official public health guidance and are required to be covered by insurance plans at no cost to consumers.

Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/09/rfk-ousts-vaccine-advisory-committee-acip/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&amp;utm\_medium=social&amp;utm\_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/06/09/rfk-ousts-vaccine-advisory-committee-acip/?utm_campaign=wp_main&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=reddit.com)

washingtonpost

&gt; When the recommendations are approved by the director, they become official public health guidance and are required to be covered by insurance plans at no cost to consumers.

vaccines will *no longer be covered*, only the rich will be able to afford them. 

If you’re unable to afford them, you and your children will be at risk to needlessly suffer and/or die from easily preventable disease 

Additionally the poor won’t be able to travel out of the country to get them, because you need them to get into other countries.  

turquoise_amethyst

"We just want to make sure people have the freedom of choice" -- conservatives 🙄

Elseiver

RFK Jr: I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,

Pepsiman34

I hate this timeline. I hate this timeline. I hate this timeline.

AdeptDisasterr

GaimeGuy

saiyanscaris

Sad but, if he has the power to fire them he has the power to not listen to them. They were added to help, and we're not a country looking to do helpful things anymore. Powerful direct message.

MittenCollyBulbasaur

I am still in shock that we have a heroin addict, anti-vaxx idiot in charge of our health!

jimtowntim

“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science”

Uhhh- you are the reason confidence has declined. Dude is a piece of shit.

melithium

Soon we'll be able to die of dysentery on road trips just like our forefathers.

snakeplizzken

I will never forgive Bill Cassidy….what a way to destroy a legacy.

Goingone

&gt; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is retiring all 17 members of a crucial government panel of vaccine advisors.

&gt; “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Perhaps you should not have fucking worked to destroy public confidence in vaccine science?

Physicle_Partics

I can’t stand this bitch

Just a reminder he said he’s going to “find the cause of autism” by September. Just setting things in motion it seems

parker2020

If anyone wants to know more about how the childhood vaccine schedule is actually developed, this podcast has a really fantastic episode about it: https://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/2025/04/08/episode-172-childhood-vaccine-schedule-1-lets-give-it-a-shot/

Spoiler: it’s in fact a very thoughtful and involved scientific process.

yourlittlebirdie

This is why it’s hard for me to be religious…

2 Kennedy’s assassinated but the one who lives is this guy.

DblockR

MAGA…you guys are, without a **doubt**, the *dumbest* individuals to vote for this shit. This country will *never* recover. Solely thanks to your idiocy and affinity for being told what to do by an authority figure

Fuck each and everyone of you

Foodspec

gankindustries

Pure insanity, America is going down the drain at light speed.  

There were multiple chances to stop this but Americans put the foot to the floor voting in those to dismantle everything the country spent the last century building upon.

How do they even come back from all this damage.

blipblopthrowawayz

Ahelex

I feel bad for all the children who will suffer because their parents are tricked by conmen in the federal government

bulletpharm

I find myself genuinely wondering if we're going to see a polio outbreak in the U.S. within the next couple of years.

r0botdevil

We already have 4x the Measle cases than all of last year.

https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html

gnome-civilian

This dumb mother fucker actually believes he is smarter than an entire room of doctors and scientists 

Beerinmotion

"“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in an [opinion piece](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-jr-hhs-moves-to-restore-public-trust-in-vaccines-45495112?mod=opinion_lead_pos5) in the Wall Street Journal on Monday."

No, you fuckwit, what we need to trust vaccine science is to hear the vaccine science from the actual vaccine scientists because they KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING.

You and your little anti-vax goons don't. YOU are the reason people distrust vaccines.

You're going to get Americans (and other people around the world) killed with your bullshit.

brokencreedman

“They are all biased by the scientific method!”

WisdomCow

We're going to end up with another pandemic, aren't we?

Jedi_Ninja

Never, in all of recorded history, has a society gone this fast in reverse.

Myksyk

This is a biological warfare attack on US citizens using our own stupid faith in institutions and norms against us. 

Wake. Up.

Cognitive_Spoon

And my MAGA moron family members wonder we don't speak and they receive none of my time and less of my attention.

Lostsailor73

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, has dismissed all 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, citing conflicts of interest and a need to restore public trust in vaccines.

RFK Jr. Removes CDC Vaccine Panel

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want