“I don’t like established science,” ACIP chairperson Kirk Milhoan said in an interview on the Why Should I Trust You? podcast. “Science is what I observe.”
Kirk Milhoan, chairperson of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, believes that individual liberties should take precedence over public health when talking about vaccines—including those that protect against diseases like measles and polio.
Speaking on the Why Should I Trust You? podcast, Milhoan said “what we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health,” he noted, according to reporting from STAT News.
Patients, he continued, “should be making the decisions on what the risks are of disease, what the risks are of vaccines, what the family history is, and then make a decision from there, as opposed to what was sort of more of a heavy-handed, authoritarian thought of the vaccine schedule.”
Alongside the measles vaccine, Milhoan cast doubt on the necessity of polio shots today compared to the middle of the 20th century when the vaccine was first introduced. “Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different, and so those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not,” he said on the podcast.
Polio is a highly transmissible disease that passes from the feces of an infected person through contaminated drinking water. According to the CDC’s own website, vaccination proved to be key in eliminating the virus in the U.S., with the last known imported case documented in 1993.
Despite the role that immunization has played in reducing polio rates in the U.S., Milhoan downplayed its value. When podcast co-host Brinda Adhikari noted that polio shots have proven effective at halting disease spread, Milhoan countered by saying that “there is an emotion when people use the word proven,” adding that he instead prefers to base off “observable science.”
“I don’t like established science,” Milhoan said on the podcast. “Science is what I observe.”
In June 2025, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. removed all 17 former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP)—a move he said was necessary to “reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.” Kennedy has since reformed the panel with members who have documented histories of vaccine criticism, including Milhoan.
Early last month, former ACIP chairperson Martin Kulldorff was reassigned to another post in the Department of Health and Human Services and Milhoan was named as his replacement.
Under Milhoan, the ACIP convened in December and approved a recommendation that would delay hepatitis B vaccination to two months after birth, as opposed to giving the vaccine immediately after birth. The CDC has since adopted this recommendation.
