Good evening. I'm John Yang. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s influence on the

government's approach to vaccines began to emerge this week when his hand-picked advisory panel

held its first meeting. The committee pushed for a review of the entire childhood vaccine

schedule, a reevaluation of hepatitis B vaccinations for babies, and walked back the longstanding

recommendations for flu shots containing thimerosol, a preservative that's long been the

target of anti-vaccine movement. Earlier this month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the

vaccine panel, which is called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. He then named

eight new members, at least half of whom have expressed skepticism about some vaccines. That prompted

the resignation of Dr. Fiona Havers, one of the CDC's leading vaccine experts. She discussed

your decision with Ali Rogan. Dr. Havers, thank you so much for joining us. You've said that you contemplated

resigning from your post several times since Secretary Kennedy was confirmed. Why is it

that the dismissal of the entire vaccine advisory panel really the last straw for you? The dismissal of the committee

and the firing of the 17 experts was really the last straw for me because it really showed

that they were planning on blowing up the whole process. I think that the ACIP recommendations

process is very regimented and evidence-based. The committee is very carefully vetted.

And when he just fired everyone on the committee and then replaced them with hand-picked people

that many of whom are really not qualified to be on sitting on this committee,

I had no faith anymore that this process would use scientific evidence to make informed policy decisions.

So at this last meeting of this panel, they voted on something that had not been on the agenda,

the removal of the preservative thymarisol from vaccines.

So what does this all mean to you in terms of the flouting of very well-established up until this point procedure

with approving the childhood vaccine schedule and other norms?

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