Head of RFK Jr.’s handpicked CDC vaccine advisory panel to challenge former agency directors to debate

A sign marks the entrance to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, on August 27, 2025. Brynn Anderson/AP/File

The recently installed chair of the committee that advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines is set to open a key meeting on Thursday by inviting several of the agency’s former directors to “a live public debate on vaccines.”

In his remarks at the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Dr. Martin Kulldorff is expected to say that only through debate could members of the public know who to trust for scientific advice. Kulldorff is among 12 members added to the committee this year by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic.

“We are currently exp