A shadow vaccine panel is now a public health necessity

He restocked ACIP with individuals that most scientists consider to be, well, unscientific. Indeed, many of the new committee members espouse dangerous and fringe anti-vaccination views that are in stark opposition to consensus scientific opinion. 

All of this happens just as vaccine-preventable diseases like measles are making a comeback, and terrifying threats like avian flu threaten to cast the world into a new and more deadly pandemic.

The U.S. administration's deepening anti-vax antics demand more than just criticism, though. They need a constructive counterweight. The broader public health community should establish a shadow vaccine advisory committee: A credible, independent body to defend evidence-informed medicine and model how vaccine policy should actually be done.

We’ve seen this approach work elsewhere. In Canada and the U.K., opposition parties maintain “shadow cabinets” to monitor and challenge their government counterparts. Prior to taking office, By 2020, President Biden had assembled a COVID-19 science-based advisory panel to counter the outgoing Trump administration’s problematic public health messaging. Similarly, a shadow panel on vaccines could counterbalance ACIP’s bias by offering timely, scientifically grounded responses to falsehoods and lies.

Kennedy’s new panel includes the likes of Dr. Robert Malone, who has made many false and odd claims, such as that COVID vaccines worsen COVID infection, will cause mass infertility, and that vaccines cause “AIDS-like” damage to the immune system (none of these things has been shown to be true).  Other members of the committee have advocated for mass infection, and the use of disproven therapies to treat COVID. Frankly, it's quackery. 

As the new committee does not represent consensus scientific opinion, I cannot see it issuing advice that comports with studied and tested public health best practices. Worse, attaching their views to a CDC body grants them a dangerous amount of authority and perceived legitimacy. The result will be more confusion and mistrust, and, ultimately, a deeper decline in vaccination rates and the unmitigated spread of preventable diseases.

This isn't theoretical. In 2024, the U.S. saw the highest number of measles cases in decades, largely among unvaccinated children. And make no mistake, measles is not benign; it can and does kill and disable. Public health is fragile. It depends not just on scientific facts, but on institutional trust. Undermining that trust for ideological posturing is a threat to national well-being and international standing.

A shadow committee could serve multiple roles: It could issue rapid-response statements to counter false claims; publish plain-language briefs to support local health workers and journalists; review public policy from a scientific and ethical perspective; and amplify trusted community voices in defense of vaccination.

With CDC data transparency now threatened by the administration, a shadow committee could expand its mandate to serve as a platform for objective and transparent data sharing, especially around politically sensitive topics like sexual preference and socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Such a body should not be a partisan stunt. It should be a declaration that facts still matter, and that the nation’s health infrastructure cannot be left vulnerable to pseudoscience and political bias. When public trust is eroded by official figures who reject consensus science, we need other leaders — scientists, educators, and public servants — to fill the void of trust and rational thought.

Kennedy is unravelling the fabric of public health that was so lovingly woven by generations of workers and scientists. That rope pulled the world out of the morass of rampant infectious disease that defined the pre-vaccination age. The rational world must respond. We must provide an alternative that is both credible and visible. A shadow committee is one such alternative.

We are not just debating vaccine schedules anymore. We are debating reality itself.