Kennedy Appointees Shift Vaccine Advisory Panel Further Right, Raising Concerns Over Public Health
The Biden administration’s overhaul of the nation’s vaccine advisory board continues under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with the recent appointment of two OB-GYNs who have publicly questioned mainstream vaccine science. These appointments signal a further shift toward vaccine skepticism within the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a group responsible for making crucial recommendations regarding vaccine policy in the United States.
The appointments come as Kennedy remakes the group, having dismissed members appointed during the Biden administration and replacing them with his own selections. This restructuring has already prompted criticism, with concerns raised about the committee’s adherence to established processes and decades of medical consensus. Kennedy’s most significant changes to federal vaccine policy, however, occurred after he bypassed ACIP entirely, following an executive order from President Trump that led to downgraded recommendations for several childhood vaccines, positioning the U.S. as an outlier among developed nations.
One of the new appointees, Kimberly Biss, has openly questioned the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, despite extensive evidence supporting their use. Her concerns have particularly focused on the Covid-19 vaccine and its potential effects on women, with unsubstantiated claims of widespread infertility and harm during pregnancy. Multiple independent reviews have consistently confirmed the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine during pregnancy.
The other new member, Adam Urato, a maternal-fetal medicine doctor based in Massachusetts, has close ties to Tracy Beth Høeg, the acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration and the FDA representative to ACIP. According to his social media posts, Urato appears to share the growing vaccine skepticism that characterizes the current ACIP membership.
While these appointments are unlikely to dramatically alter the committee’s overall balance, they reinforce a trajectory toward increased scrutiny of vaccines. Neither Urato nor Biss responded to requests for comment.
Urato has a history of challenging the medical establishment, most notably through his years-long campaign against the FDA’s approval of Makena, a drug used to prevent preterm births. He argued the trial data were insufficient and actively petitioned for its removal from the market. In 2022, an FDA advisory panel agreed with his assessment, and the drug was voluntarily pulled by the company the following year. “I’ve been involved with this activism and patient protection for my whole career,” Urato stated in an interview with STAT in early December. “Certainly over the last 20 years.”
His skepticism extends to vaccines, particularly for pregnant women. In June, Urato posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “The science is not ‘long-settled’ regarding vaccines.” He also expressed concerns in 2021 to The New York Times about his patients’ anxieties regarding potential harm to fetal development from the Covid vaccines. In September 2023, he shared a study examining Covid-19 vaccine mRNA distribution in breast milk, writing, “We don’t know the risks this poses,” and labeling vaccine mandates for pregnant and breastfeeding women as “cruel & inhumane.”
Urato also shares Kennedy’s concerns regarding the potential harms of antidepressant medications, specifically SSRIs, which Kennedy has falsely linked to mass shootings and described as “harder to quit than heroin.” In July, Urato participated in an FDA panel organized by Høeg focused on antidepressant use during pregnancy, a panel largely composed of individuals skeptical of these medications. Nine medical experts consulted by STAT at the time emphasized that while risks associated with SSRI use during pregnancy are generally not significant, the risks of untreated depression are substantial and potentially life-threatening.
Further raising concerns, Urato filed a citizen petition with the FDA in September requesting warnings about potential complications with SSRI use during pregnancy and fetal brain development. Høeg reportedly became unusually involved in this petition, presenting slides summarizing it to top FDA leaders – slides that were later discovered to have been created by Urato.
Biss, similarly, has demonstrated a deep distrust of the pharmaceutical and medical establishment. Currently a fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance, a group aligned with Kennedy that has supported the Trump administration’s vaccine policies, she also practices with Women’s Care in Florida. She previously served as chief of staff at Bayfront Health. Biss is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has previously criticized vaccine policies from both the Trump administration and ACIP, and she reportedly called for the organization to be defunded following its criticism of Kennedy.
Biss appears aligned with the current committee’s direction, having previously reposted a social media post questioning vaccination for newborns shortly after ACIP recommended delaying the hepatitis B vaccine dose typically given at birth. She also publicly supported the administration’s restructuring of the vaccine schedule through executive order. Biss has previously testified before Congress alongside Robert Malone, a current ACIP member, expressing concerns about alleged dangers of Covid-19 vaccines. She has advocated for tissue studies to investigate alleged harms from mRNA vaccines and, without evidence, suggested fasting as a method to mitigate vaccine effects.
These appointments underscore a significant shift in the landscape of federal vaccine policy, raising questions about the future direction of public health recommendations and the role of scientific consensus in shaping those decisions.
