Vaccine expert Paul Offit, who had served on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biologics Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) since 2017, was removed from the committee. Prior to his dismissal, a contact at the FDA told Offit that they wanted him to remain on the committee and that his forms had been cleared by the FDA, “but they’re being held up at HHS.” On September 2, 2025, he received an email thanking him for his prior service, while offering no reason for his dismissal. He appears to be the only person removed from VRBPAC.
On September 1, 2025, Offit said in an interview that “[w]e can no longer trust the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] because of the decisions being made by [Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr],” saying that he is intentionally sowing distrust in vaccines to reduce vaccination rates. In June 2025, Kennedy abruptly fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). According to Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, Offit’s dismissal is “consistent with what the secretary of HHS did with ACIP, remove those who are qualified and vaccine experts and replace them with unqualified ideologues or those who promote pseudoscience.”