This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
Two new members — including a critic of COVID-19 vaccines — are joining ACIP less than a month before the panel meets to discuss COVID-19 vaccine injuries. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named Florida primary care physician Dr. Sean G. Downing and Texas pediatrician Dr. Angelina Farella to the CDC vaccine advisory committee.
Two new members — including a critic of COVID-19 vaccines — are joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory committee, less than a month before the panel meets to discuss COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named Florida primary care physician Dr. Sean G. Downing and Texas pediatrician Dr. Angelina Farella to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
ACIP typically meets three times a year to review scientific data on the risks and benefits of vaccines and to issue vaccine recommendations. The CDC director has to adopt the recommendations before they become federal policy.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the selection of Downing and Farella reflects Kennedy’s commitment “to transparency, rigorous science, and diverse clinical expertise in guiding the nation’s immunization policies.”
Kennedy suggested the new members will help ACIP “scrutinize the evidence openly, ask hard questions, and earn the nation’s confidence through transparent deliberation.”
“Dr. Downing and Dr. Farella bring decades of real-world experience caring for children, adults, and families — and that frontline perspective is essential to making recommendations that are grounded in gold-standard science and worthy of public trust,” Kennedy said.
Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said the new members “strengthen ACIP with experienced clinicians who understand how immunization guidance matters for patients and families.”
An HHS spokesperson referred The Defender to the agency’s press release.
Farella opposed COVID vaccine mandates
Farella is a member of America’s Frontline Doctors, a medical freedom group that opposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates during the pandemic. She made headlines in 2021 for publicly questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and the necessity of getting vaccinated.
During May 2021 testimony before the Texas State Senate, Farella testified in favor of a bill that would have prohibited COVID-19 mandates in the state. She linked the COVID-19 vaccines to a high number of adverse events and deaths.
“We have in excess of 4,000 deaths and this [vaccine] has not been pulled yet,” Farella testified.
During an appearance on NewsMax in 2021, Farella said other treatments would be more effective in combating COVID-19 infections.
“You know how you fight a pandemic, and you know how you fight disease? You treat it,” Farella said. She suggested that treatments such as Vitamin D and zinc would be safer and more effective than the vaccines.
“There has been an absolute blackout on what primary care physicians can do to treat … these patients well. That’s how you crush a pandemic. Not by vaccinating,” Farella told NewsMax.
ACIP set to discuss COVID vaccine injuries at next meeting
ACIP’s next meeting is scheduled for March 18-19.
According to a notice posted in the Federal Register, the committee will consider issuing recommendations related to COVID-19 vaccine injuries and long COVID. The committee will also discuss its methodology for making recommendations.
In January, ACIP committee member Dr. Robert Malone hinted that ACIP would consider discussing the removal of COVID-19 vaccines from the market if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t do so.
“I’m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the COVID vaccine mRNA products off the market,” Malone said. “All I can say is stay tuned and wait for the upcoming ACIP meeting. If the FDA won’t act, there are other entities that will.”
According to STAT, Kennedy added the new ACIP members “during an unstable time” for the committee and federal health agencies.
ACIP was scheduled to meet Feb. 25-27. However, the meeting was canceled after the CDC missed the deadline for announcing the meeting in the Federal Register. Per federal law, the agency must give notice of ACIP meetings a certain period of time in advance to allow for public input.
HHS was also under legal pressure to cancel the meeting. In separate lawsuits, medical groups led by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and 15 states have asked federal courts to disband ACIP. They allege its members were illegally appointed after Kennedy removed the panel’s former members in June 2025.
The AAP asked the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent ACIP from holding its February meeting. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy has not yet ruled on the request. According to STAT, Murphy delayed ruling on the case to give lawyers for the government more time to respond to the AAP’s statements.
In January, Children’s Health Defense and five other plaintiffs sued the AAP, alleging it has been running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud American families about the safety of the childhood vaccination schedule.
Kennedy wrote in a June 2025 Wall Street Journal op-ed that ACIP needed a shakeup due to previous committee members’ ties to the pharmaceutical industry. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” he wrote.
Since then, ACIP voted to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from flu vaccines and ended the recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. In September, ACIP voted to recommend individual decision-making for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Last month, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) announced that it was withdrawing its doctors from ACIP committees.
Representatives of the AAP, the American Medical Association and six other major medical associations were removed from ACIP workgroups last year. Though their members can still attend ACIP’s public meetings, some groups, including the AAP, have been absent from those meetings since Kennedy’s shakeup of the committee last year.
ACOG publicly opposed Kennedy’s changes to public health policy, including reductions to the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule.
Kennedy has steadily made additions to ACIP’s lineup following the dismissal of its previous slate of members. In June 2025, he named eight new members to the committee, although one declined the invitation. Kennedy named five more members to ACIP in September 2025 and two new members in January of this year.
In an interview today with investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., one of ACIP’s January appointees, Massachusetts OB-GYN Dr. Adam Urato, accused ACOG of covering up its past support for COVID-19 vaccine mandates for pregnant women.
Urato also raised questions about ACOG’s financial relationships and transparency, including funding it receives from several Big Pharma companies.
Related articles in The Defender
COVID Vaccine Injuries to Take Center Stage at Upcoming ACIP Meeting
‘Stay Tuned’: Will CDC Vaccine Advisers Announce Big Changes at March Meeting?
Exclusive: CHD Calls for Federal Criminal Investigation of OSHA Over COVID Vaccine Injury Reporting
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