This vaccine adviser to RFK Jr. has some choice words for his critics - Politico
“Reckless” and “dangerous” were just two of the broadsides American medical groups lobbed at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisers after they recommended ending universal vaccination at birth for hepatitis B, the virus that causes liver failure and cancer. Retsef Levi, one of the advisers, has some choice words for the critics: They’re conflicted. They’re misleading the public. They’re party to gross, even criminal negligence, he says. The war of words — and a new directive from President Donald Trump — suggests the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on which Levi sits will soon launch a much broader review of the childhood vaccine schedule. That could have far-reaching consequences both for public health and for vaccine uptake. States rely on federal guidance in determining which shots to require for daycare and school attendance. Kennedy named Levi, an Israeli-born professor of operations management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management to the advisory committee this sprin...