Top CDC Adviser Joins RFK Jr’s Department of Health and Human Services

Martin Kulldorff is no longer chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Martin Kulldorff speaks during a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Chamblee, Ga., on Sept. 18, 2025. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Martin Kulldorff, who was chair of the panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is joining the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to advise Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., officials announced on Dec. 1.

Kulldorff was appointed chief science officer of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, HHS said. The office is the department’s think tank and provides policy advice to the secretary of health.

Earlier in the year, Kennedy removed all members from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the CDC on vaccines, and appointed Kulldorff and other new members to the committee.

“Martin Kulldorff transformed ACIP from a rubber stamp into a committee that delivers gold-standard science for the American people,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I’m glad to welcome him to my team to help develop bold, evidence-based policies to Make America Healthy Again.”

Kulldorff said in a statement that he was honored to join other scientists Kennedy has hired.

“I look forward to contributing to the science-based public health policies that will Make America Healthy Again,” he stated.

Kulldorff, who holds a doctorate in operations research, was a professor at Harvard Medical School when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Kulldorff, who had constructed drug and vaccine safety monitoring systems, also advised the CDC at the time on vaccine safety.

The CDC terminated Kulldorff’s advisory position because he advocated keeping Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine on the market amid concerns about post-vaccination blood clotting. Harvard placed Kulldorff on leave after he declined to take a COVID-19 vaccine, and the university later terminated him. Kulldorff pointed out that he had already recovered from COVID-19, which gave him protection against reinfection.

Kulldorff also coauthored the Great Barrington Declaration, which urged officials to reverse the forced closures of businesses and schools in favor of more limited restrictions that mainly targeted at-risk groups, such as the elderly.

Kulldorff’s critics have included Dr. Francis Collins, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, who supported pandemic-era lockdowns, and multiple former CDC directors, who said Kulldorff and others whom Kennedy appointed to ACIP were unqualified. Kulldorff said at an ACIP meeting in September that he would debate other scientists over their views and that scientists who would not engage in public debates should not be trusted.

Kulldorff’s exit from ACIP comes days before the panel’s next meeting. Panelists are scheduled to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule and hepatitis B vaccination.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, has been named as the panel’s new chair, HHS said. Dr. Robert Malone, a professor at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center, is still the panel’s vice chair.

Milhoan told The Epoch Times that people can expect the panel, under his leadership, to engage in “a continued look at true risk-benefit analysis of any intervention” it recommends, including working to compel scientific studies done on subjects for which there is not adequate data.