Kennedy’s New Vaccine Advisers Helped Lawyers Raise Doubts About Their Safety

Three of the new advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to guide the government on immunization policy took part in lawsuits casting doubt on the safety or efficacy of vaccines, public records show.

In dismissing all 17 members of an influential Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on Monday, Mr. Kennedy cited what he said was a history of conflicts of interest that he claimed made those experts a “rubber stamp” on approving vaccines. But adding members who assisted in legal cases that were either against vaccine makers or that suggested widespread vaccine-caused harm raises questions about a different form of potential bias.

While the legal involvement of the three new panelists does not appear to violate the rules, critics of Mr. Kennedy said it created the appearance of a conflict.

“He’s invoking the language of ethics and integrity to get rid of these experts and now is installing people who may have their own biases — that he apparently does not want to recognize,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor and ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

One of Mr. Kennedy’s appointees, Vicky Pebsworth, is a nurse who serves on the board of a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about vaccine injuries. She certified to a court that, in her professional opinion, a survey of families of unvaccinated children supported the hypothesis that a rise in the number of recommended childhood vaccines explained an epidemic of chronic disease. Mr. Kennedy has espoused the same theory.

Another, Dr. Robert Malone, a physician and biochemist whose criticism of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines catapulted him into the spotlight during the pandemic, was a paid expert witness on behalf of company whistle-blowers who claimed that Merck, one of the nation’s largest vaccine manufacturers, had covered up evidence casting doubt on the effectiveness of the mumps vaccine.