Pandemic Center

I don’t know exactly when I was infected with Ebola. As a doctor in a treatment center in Guinea in 2014, I faced hundreds of potential exposures during the outbreak there.

If I had to guess, the virus probably breached my protective gear while my colleagues and I cared for a young woman in the final moments of her battle with the disease. Each time she vomited or soiled herself, we changed her linens, gently laying her listless body back onto clean, burgundy floral sheets. I knew this ritual wouldn’t save her life. I also knew it carried substantial personal risk. But I refused to let her die without dignity. I know there are many who would do the same.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet this week for the first time since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all of its sitting members and appointed new ones.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is expected to vote on vaccine recommendations for the fall as well as discuss other vaccines, including those given to children. The group wields enormous influence setting vaccine policy in the United States, including which vaccines will be covered by insurance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee is set to meet for the first time since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the entire panel and appointed his own hand-selected members.

Earlier this month, Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and appointed eight new members, some of whom have been critics of shots -- especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACIP will meet on Wednesday, June 25, and Thursday, June 26, to review scientific data on some vaccines and vote on some fall recommendations.

Rapid detection and response to biological threats are critical to global health security. For decades, the United States has played a leading role in international outbreak response. However, recent U.S. policy shifts, including deep cuts to global health programs, reductions in personnel, and withdrawal from key institutions like the World Health Organization, are weakening disease detection and response systems worldwide. These actions threaten outbreak preparedness, data sharing, research collaboration, and frontline response capabilities, increasing the risk of uncontrolled epidemics with potentially catastrophic consequences.

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hey’ve thought of each other as enemies. They’re on opposite sides of a culture war. They believe drastically different things about vaccines.

But, earlier this year, they did the rarest of things: They had a civil discussion and found common ground.

Since April, leading public health experts from institutions like Yale and Brown have been meeting with grassroots members of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA, to build trust and bridge deep divides over health care.

The conversations are the brainchild of Brinda Adhikari, a journalist and former television producer who grew increasingly concerned about Americans’ mistrust of institutions after Donald Trump’s reelection.

“These are two groups that talk a lot about each other,” said Adhikari, who has worked for ABC News and executive produced the podcast and television show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” “I just don’t see a lot of spaces where they talk to each other or with each other.”

The conversations are captured on Adhikari’s weekly podcast, “Why Should I Trust You?”

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Prior to becoming Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had espoused the idea of "medical freedom," the ability of people to make personal health decisions for themselves and their families without corporate or government coercion.

It's an idea supported under Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the U.S. by making healthier lifestyle choices.

On topics, such as vaccines, Kennedy has said he wouldn't prevent children from being able to receive vaccines but would leave the choice up to parents.

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