Pediatrician Fired for Role as CDC Vaccine Adviser is ‘Un-Fired’ Next Day, Wife Says

Driscoll Children’s Hospital fired Dr. Kirk Milhoan even though he had "no patient or family complaints against him, and numerous accolades."

Dec 16, 2025

This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.

Kirk Milhoan, M.D., Ph.D., who chairs the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), was reinstated to his pediatric cardiology practice one day after he was fired. Driscoll Children’s Hospital fired Milhoan after receiving an “overwhelming” number of calls for his dismissal following ACIP’s Dec. 5 vote to change its Hep B vaccine recommendation, according to his wife, Dr. Kimberly Milhoan.

The pediatrician who chairs the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines was “unfired” from his pediatric cardiology practice just one day after being told on Dec. 11 that he was fired because of his ACIP leadership.

Kirk Milhoan, M.D., Ph.D., was informed he was being dismissed from his practice “solely because” he chaired the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), according to a Dec. 11 Substack post by his wife, Dr. Kimberly Milhoan.

Milhoan’s employer, which his wife left unnamed but was confirmed by Just the News and Dr. Robert W. Malone as Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Texas, fired him after receiving an “overwhelming” number of calls for his dismissal after ACIP’s Dec. 5 vote to change its hepatitis B (Hep B) vaccine recommendation.

“The irony is they are trying to destroy the career of someone who was on their side, but willing to re-examine the evidence,” Kimberly Milhoan wrote.

On Dec. 12, she added an update, titled “Un-fired.” She said Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist with 25 years of experience and a former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, had been invited back to his practice after a colleague intervened on his behalf.

“The fact that Dr. [Kirk] Milhoan was apparently let go due to contributing to ACIP, then just as quickly brought back on raises troubling questions,” Daniel O’Connor, founder and CEO of Trial Site News, told The Defender.

O’Connor said:

“When political or ideological pressure — not patient harm or professional misconduct — begins to determine who is allowed to practice medicine, science gives way to ideology, due process erodes and the public is left with a healthcare system governed by fear rather than evidence.”

Driscoll Children’s Hospital fired Kirk Milhoan even though he had “no patient or family complaints against him, and numerous accolades,” his wife wrote.

The hospital initially dismissed him “because of public outrage that he would choose to participate in scientific medical debate (in service to his country, I’d add) and make recommendations based on the best available evidence, even if that required a modification of previous practice.”

Engaging in scientific debate is something doctors routinely do, Kimberly Milhoan said. “But for some powerful segment of the population, there appears to be consensus that some topics or conclusions are off-limits and they can pressure to harm careers and livelihoods of those with the courage and integrity to investigate whether the science is truly settled.”

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Was Merck involved in Milhoan firing?

On Dec. 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appointed Kirk Milhoan to chair ACIP, after Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., stepped down to serve as chief science officer for HHS’ planning and evaluation office.

At its last meeting, ACIP voted to end a decades-long recommendation that all U.S. babies receive the Hep B vaccine within 12-24 hours of birth.

Instead, for babies born to mothers who test negative for hepatitis B, the committee recommends that families determine whether to give their child the Hep B shot at birth through individual decision-making with their physician.

For infants who don’t get the birth dose, the committee recommends the initial dose of the vaccine not be administered until infants are at least 2 months old.

Although the committee, which livestreamed its discussion, provided data to support the change in Hep B vaccine guidance, several medical organizations loudly objected. The American Medical Association said in a press release that ACIP’s vote was “reckless and undermines decades of public confidence in a proven, lifesaving vaccine.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said it will continue to recommend the Hep B vaccine for newborns, claiming that children will die if newborns don’t get the shot.

Critics of the AAP’s stance pointed out that the AAP receives funding from major pharmaceutical companies — including Merck and GSK, which manufacture Hep B vaccines — and from the federal government.

“Merck and GSK manufacture the only two newborn Hep B vaccines available in the U.S.,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense. “Both companies are also corporate donors to the AAP. Do the interests of selling drugs and those of keeping our children healthy conflict? I think it’s a big problem that we even have to ask.”

In an X post today, Malone suggested Merck may have been involved in Kirk Milhoan’s firing.

Milhoan wanted to be part of vaccine debate

Kirk Milhoan — who publicly supported off-label COVID-19 treatments and questioned COVID-19 vaccine mandates — was willing to serve as ACIP chair because he had been “longing, as a pediatrician, to be a part of the debate and exploration of evidence on the issue of vaccines,” Kimberly Milhoan wrote.

“Even he has been surprised by where the data has led,” she added, referencing the data supporting ACIP’s recent rollback of its Hep B vaccine guidance for newborns.

She wrote:

“Most physicians agree that newborns are one of our most vulnerable populations. In order for a patient to undertake any risk of a therapeutic, there must be a demonstrated benefit.
“The question the committee evaluated was: what is the benefit to a newborn for taking a vaccine against an infection for which their mother has tested negative and there is no risk of their participating in activities which will result in their infection?”

The committee examined whether the benefits outweighed the risks and concluded that they didn’t. Kimberly Milhoan explained:

“The committee found the data for excluding harm from this therapeutic lacking (while there is actually evidence of harm), and any data demonstrating harm associated with delay also lacking, so only recommended a newborn dose to infants of mothers who are Hepatitis B positive (or whose status is unknown).”

People can resist changing their minds due to confirmation bias — but that needs to change. She added:

“We’ve been wrong in medicine a lot, and we will continue to be wrong, and we cannot be afraid of admitting that. For the sake of our patients, we should want to be right as soon as possible.”

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