FILE PHOTO: Professor of Operations Management, Retsef Levi, MD, speaks as members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meet at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory panel for vaccines convenes in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo

(Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has chosen Retsef Levi, a member of its key vaccine panel, to lead its COVID-19 immunization workgroup, a spokesperson for the health department told Reuters on Monday.

Levi had critiqued mRNA vaccines in the past, saying they can cause serious harm and death, especially among children, and called for their immediate withdrawal.

Levi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The CDC's COVID-19 immunization workgroup reviews data related to the safety, effectiveness and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States.

The agency changed its recommendation for children in May, saying the vaccine can be given to healthy children aged six months through 17 years if parents and doctors agree on the need for the shot.

It, however, withdrew its recommendation of the shot for pregnant women.

Levi was appointed to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in June, after Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members.

The workgroup would not be headed by CDC staff members as it had been previously, Endpoints News reported last week, adding that the committee would also include ACIP members James Pagano and Robert Malone, a prominent critic of mRNA vaccines.

Endpoints also reported Levi's appointment as chair of the committee.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Maju Samuel)