Clinician and pediatric researcher Wendy Lane, pediatrician Natasha Burgert, and pediatrician Joshua Williams have all been removed from their positions.
Stat previously reported that Lane and Veronica McNally, an attorney and director of trial advocacy at Michigan State University, were dismissed.
Lane told The Hill she received an email earlier this week saying her “service as a member of the AACV is no longer required.”
Lane was appointed to the committee in early 2025 and had attended only one meeting.
She followed up asking why she’d been dismissed, and was told that service on the committee is at the discretion of the HHS secretary.
Reading from the email, Lane said she was told that “from time to time, the administration may make changes to committee membership to align with evolving priorities, statutory considerations or administrative needs.”
HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
The commission reviews issues relating to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and makes recommendations to the HHS secretary. The ACCV suggests which vaccines should be covered by the program, and which conditions.
Kennedy has long targeted the program. Experts say it is badly in need of modernization, but there’s concern the changes Kennedy wants could bankrupt it or tear it down entirely, at the risk of driving drugmakers from the market and threatening access to childhood shots.
The HHS chief in the past has railed against the program and said he wants to speed up the resolutions and expand the conditions that are eligible.
Kennedy, who founded a prominent anti-vaccine group, has pushed the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism and has been involved in suing vaccine makers over patient injury claims. He has said the VICP removes any incentive for drug companies to make safe shots.
The VICP was created in 1986 in order to give quick payouts to families who can prove a child was injured from a vaccine. It has distributed about $5 billion since 1988.
Families receive compensation through a trust fund that’s funded by an excise tax on vaccine makers.
In exchange for the tax, vaccine makers have a limited liability shield. Petitioners file claims against the federal government, not the manufacturers, and families can get compensation without having to prove that drugmakers were negligent.
The panel’s dismissals echo what Kennedy did when he remade the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
After several members said they received e-mails dismissing them from service, Kennedy wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal confirming that he was firing the entire committee and handpicking their replacements.
