by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 25, 2025) — As of 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is live-streaming the first meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) committee following its purging by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. approximately two weeks ago and selection of eight new members, leaving nine seats vacant to date.
The meeting will also convene on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Dr. Robert W. Malone, an early inventor of mRNA technology in the 1980s and ’90s, was appointed co-chair, he announced on his Substack.
While each speaker was introduced, there was no video of ACIP members, but rather, slides containing the scheduled topics and speakers. An exception was that Dr. Meissner, who CHD’s Dr. Meryl Nass reported in her live blog is a “professor at Dartmouth and apparently is a consultant to BARDA” and “also was involved with the running of the federal vaccine injury compensation program,” was visible for a short time.
Speaking at 10:35, Dr. Martin Kuldorff said the current CDC recommendations for children’s immunizations exceeds that of other countries. “We are learning more about vaccines over time…and we have a duty and responsibility to keep up to date with scientific research,” he said.
He said the MMR vaccine in particular has been known to cause “febrile seizures.”
“While we may bring different perspectives on some issues, we look forward to working collaboratively” with other public health officials, he said, on “evidence-based medicine.”
At 10:41, a discussion of the COVID-19 vaccine was opened by Dr. MacNeil. The speaker reviewed the recommendations made beginning in 2021, noting that the “most recent work group” altered that determination but continued to recommend the shots for “high risk” such as pregnant women, “adults aged 65 years” and younger people who are “immunocompromised.”
“COVID-19 continues to impact Americans’ health,” the speaker said at 10:49, citing specifics on hospitalizations, deaths and complications.
“Among children, “.4% reported long COVID symptoms,” he said. “Peak” times of illness are in both winter and summer, he asserted.
A follow-on graph showed more hospitalizations occurred between July 2024 and June 2025 from COVID-19 infections than influenza, although the latter was at a higher-than-usual level.
As of 10:57 a.m., the subject of injuries and deaths resulting from COVID-19 vaccination has not been raised.