Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to stack the chips in favor of his agenda. He has now restocked a government advisory panel on autism with new members, some of whom have expressed RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine beliefs.

On Wednesday, RFK Jr. Office has partnered the new iteration of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a panel within HHS that guides federal policy on autism research. The IACC now includes many people who endorse unsupported claims about the dangers of vaccination, including the supposed link between vaccines and autism. Not surprisingly, many experts and outside groups are not too happy about the change.

“Consistent with other federal advisory committees under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, such as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), committee members are selected to reach a predetermined conclusion, not to solicit broad, good faith input from qualified experts and stakeholders,” said Alison Singer, former member of the IACC and president of the Autism Science Foundation, an Autism Science Foundation. statement released by the organization.

A sign of things to come

Formed as an advisory panel in 2006, the IACC offers non-binding recommendations on how the government should allocate its resources to autism research and other related priorities. The panel last met in January 2025, before Trump’s second inauguration.

While the IACC and other advisory committees often see some turnover during a new administration, some members are usually retained. Just as Kennedy did at ACIP last year, however, he completely wiped the slate clean at IACC this season.

Some of the new 21 members include people with autism as well as parents of autistic children—a long-standing tradition. But the revamped IACC appears to have no representatives from leading autism organizations and a “remarkable absence of scientific expertise,” according to Singer. What it does have are many worrying inclusions.

One member is John Gilmore, for example, executive director of the Autism Action Network. AAN has emphasizing against vaccine-related policies, including orders, and has supported other anti-vaccine groups such as Children’s Health Defense, the organization once founded and led by RFK Jr. (Gilmore also founded the NY chapter of Children’s Health Defense).

Another member is Toby Rogers, a fellow at the Texas-based Brownstone Institute. Rogers also writes for Children’s Health Defense, and last fall, he WITNESS in a House congressional hearing that “autism and chronic disease epidemics are primarily caused by toxins—mostly from vaccines.” Just this month on social media, Rogers called the childhood vaccine schedule is “genocidal.”

There’s also Daniel Rossignol, a family doctor who advocates for scientifically unproven autism treatments like chelation therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (therapies that the FDA, until recentlyclearly warning people to stay away). More than a decade ago, Rossignol and another doctor, Anjum Usman, were nabbed of James Coman, the father of an autistic child, for the care they gave his son. The lawsuit was later voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff’s attorneys, but was a related civil complaint filed against Usman in the Illinois medical board for Coman led to Usman disciplined in 2014.

Antivaxxers in charge

Kennedy made no secret of his plans to radically resculpt the government’s policies on autism and vaccines.

His rejiggered ACIP has endorsed to prevent or omit certain vaccines. He directed the CDC fraudulent editing its webpages on vaccination, and earlier this month, the government officially cut the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule.

With a new IACC on board, RFK Jr.