One of the two new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines before the Texas Senate in 2021.
Ahead of a scheduled meeting later this month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has added two members to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, continuing what has been a chaotic run for the committee under the second Trump administration.
The first of these new ACIP members is Sean Downing, a specialist in internal medicine and pediatrics who has been working in the primary care setting for more than 20 years, according to a news release on Friday. Joining Downing is Angelina Farella, also a pediatrician, and owner of the mental health center A Brighter Tomorrow Family Health and Wellness, located in Texas.
Together, Downing and Farella “bring decades of real-world experience” to ACIP, Kennedy said on Friday. “That frontline perspective is essential to making recommendations that are grounded in gold-standard science and worthy of public trust.”
In June 2025, Kennedy fired all 17 previous members of the ACIP, asserting the need for a “clean sweep” to “reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.” Not long after, the secretary reformed the group, with many of its current members sharing his skepticism toward vaccines.
Like several of her fellow ACIP panelists, Farella has spoken out against vaccines. In 2021, for instance, she came before the Texas Senate and cast doubt on the safety of COVID-19 shots, claiming that the vaccines skipped animal testing.
The ACIP advises the CDC on which vaccines the agency should recommend to the broader U.S. public. The CDC isn’t required to follow the committee’s advice, but it often does. The panel convenes three times a year and was originally scheduled to meet last week, but that meeting has been postponed to March 18-19 amid continued instability at ACIP, as well as mounting controversies regarding the country’s vaccine policies.
The upcoming meeting will include discussions on injuries purportedly linked to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as issues surrounding long COVID.
The new ACIP members in December voted to recommend delaying hepatitis B vaccination for infants not deemed high-risk to two months after birth—guidelines the CDC has since adopted. Then, in January, the CDC removed six of the 17 recommended shots for children from its vaccine schedule.
In response to the ACIP overhaul, the American Academy of Pediatrics in July last year sued the HHS, alleging that the move was illegal and that Kennedy has worked to erode the public’s confidence in vaccines since becoming health secretary.
The case continues. In January, a federal judge dismissed the government’s motion to junk the lawsuit. Last month, the same judge delayed his decision pending more information, giving the government’s lawyers more time to respond to additional statements from the professional group, according to reporting from STAT News.
