US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filled the autism committee with friends, colleagues, and former colleagues who believed autism was caused by vaccines. Autism advocates now worry that the group may be giving way dangerous pseudoscientific treatments go mainstream.

Last week, Kennedy Office has partnered a whole new line for the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a group that recommends what types of autism research should be funded by the government and provides guidance on services needed by the autism community. The group is mostly made up of experts in the field of autism research, along with policy experts and autistic people who advocate for their own community.

In a statement announcing the new panel, which has no previous members, Kennedy claimed he appointed “the most qualified experts — leaders with decades of experience studying, researching, and treating autism.” But health experts and autism advocates vehemently disagree, and a review of recent group members suggests that Kennedy is teaching members of the anti-vaccine community who claim that vaccines cause autism—even though there is there is no evidence to prove that claim.

Among those appointed last week is Daniel Rossignol, a doctor who sued for alleged fraud after prescribing a 7-year-old autistic child a debunked and dangerous treatment. Tracy Slepcevic, a Kennedy appointee calls a “dear friend,” offered exposure to a wide range of bogus autism cures at its annual Autism Health Summit, including one involving injecting animal stem cells into children. Another appointee, Toby Rogers, has MANILA that “no thinking person is vaccinated” and that the vaccine makers “poisoning in children.” Rogers is a fellow at the Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research and has also called vaccines “one of the greatest crimes in human history.” He wrote articles for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy that linked autism to vaccines.

Other appointees were no different: John Gilmore founded the Autism Action Network and said his autistic son was “vaccine injured.” Gilmore is also the founder of the New York chapter of Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense group. Ginger Taylor, the former director of the Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice, has publicly claimed that many cases of autism involve “vaccine causation.” Elizabeth Mumper writes for Children’s Health Defense and is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formerly known as the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance that promotes ivermectin as a treatment for Covid.

Mumper told WIRED that his decades of work as a pediatrician and in the field of autism qualified him to be a member of the IACC. He also denied being anti-vaccine, pointing out that “he has given thousands of vaccinations in my career.”

None of the other new IACC members contacted by WIRED responded to requests for comment.

Just a few years ago, this would have been like an all-star lineup at a conspiracy conference. Today, these appointments are routine, and are the latest example of how Kennedy sought to remake America’s public health administration.

Kennedy’s decision, according to public health experts and autism advocates, will lead to fewer resources for people with autism and their families, and will also encourage those who promote pseudoscientific treatments that threaten the lives of autistic people.

“Once again, (Kennedy) proves that he is one of the most extreme and dangerous conspiracy theorists who likes to stack his committees with anti-science, anti-public-health kooks,” Gavin Yamey, professor of global health and public policy at Duke University, told WIRED. “The research evidence is clear that vaccines do not cause autism.” For Yamey, “it looks like RFK Jr.’s new committee is tasked with muddying the waters and casting doubt on that evidence. RFK Jr. spent the last year doing everything he could to destroy public health and roll back vaccination, and this new committee is more of the same.”