Drama

Days after the ruling, Robert Malone—a former researcher turned outspoken anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist who served as Kennedy’s ACIP vice chair—got into a public spat with an HHS spokesperson and dramatically resigned from the committee in anger. It started when Malone posted on social media:

ACIP has been disbanded. The government’s response to the AAP lawsuit and judge Murphey’s[sic] injunction is to disband and then recreate a new ACIP committee, as this will take less time than would be required to file and prosecute an appeal. There will be no action from the government to respond to the defamatory characterization of the former ACIP members.

Hours later, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon contradicted the claim, telling Ars Technica in a statement: “Unless officially announced by us, any assertions about what we are doing next is baseless speculation.”

Malone then resigned, saying, “After Andrew trashing me with the press, I am done with the CDC and ACIP. That was the last straw. Suffice to say I do not like drama, and have better things to do.”

While the notice of appeal filed late Wednesday conflicts with Malone’s initial assertion, he may not have been entirely wrong in indicating that Kennedy intended to create a new ACIP. Earlier this month, Kennedy rewrote ACIP’s charter, granting himself the ability to appoint anti-vaccine allies without expertise in vaccines and immunizations to the panel. He also shifted the panel’s focus to alleged vaccine injuries and risks, aligning it with the views of anti-vaccine activists.