cdc acip :: Article CreatorRFK Jr. Is Completely Reshaping Vaccine Policy. This Is The Man Helping Him Do It.
"Who is Stuart Burns?" a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention texted me from the organization's all-hands meeting in June, attaching a photo of a man seated in front of his name card.
The 60-year-old conservative with a stout build and a boyish haircut was mostly unknown to the doctors, epidemiologists and officials who had gathered to ask questions about what many have described as the gutting of their agency and the threat many believe its new leaders pose to public health.
One former CDC staffer who interacted with Burns all those years ago described it as something like a "religious crusade."
When asked about the researchers and doctors reportedly aligned with the anti-vaccine movement who had replaced the qualified experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a federal vaccine advisory committee, deputy director of public affairs Nina Witkofsky opened the floor to Burns, who was seated at a long table with other agency leaders.
"I'll catch the football on that one," said Burns, who had been recently appointed as senior adviser to the CDC director (a position that is still sitting vacant). "We've been working really hard over the past few days — over the weekend in particular — to bring on the new ACIP members," he said with a smile.
Burns said he had been on calls with agency staff, working nights and weekends ahead of the July ACIP meeting, to ensure the replacements were in place — new panelists who, critics later said, would bring anti-vaccine views and conflicts of interest to a group once respected for its scientific rigor and independence. "We're making good progress," Burns said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by MSNBC. He added that several agenda items would be delayed while the new panel got up to speed.
Though not everyone in the room recognized him, Burns had been named in an April memo from Matt Buzzelli, the CDC's newly politically appointed chief of staff, announcing interim leadership changes after mass terminations and resignations. But among the CDC's longest-serving employees, especially those in offices related to vaccines, Burns was a known entity. He had been a staffer for congressional Republicans since the early '90s — best known as a key operator for the anti-vaccine movement.
Originally from Georgia, Burns spent the last three decades in Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C., with his longest tenure, from 1995 to 2008, as legislative director and deputy chief of staff to former Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Had wanted Weldon as CDC director, but that nomination was pulled over his anti-vaccine views. But because an adviser position doesn't require Senate confirmation, Kennedy got Weldon's number two.
Burns is not a doctor or a scientist. An HHS spokesperson declined to be quoted on the record but defended Burns' management of vaccine projects for the agency. The spokesperson said that Burns had worked on health policy as a legislative aide for congressional Republicans. Burns did not respond to MSNBC's requests for comment.
Weldon's office was central to the early-2000s push to link vaccines to autism, and Burns was a key operator within the effort, acting as a liaison among activists and researchers. His work as deputy chief of staff in the early 2000s, chronicled in books and news reports from the time, was also described to MSNBC by long-serving CDC employees and three former legislative staffers who served alongside Burns. He was interviewed several times for a sympathetic history of the period's anti-vaccine activism, "Evidence of Harm." Burns facilitated dozens of meetings between anti-vaccine activists and government officials, and arranged access to CDC data for Mark and David Geier, father-son researchers who falsely linked autism to vaccines and served as experts in legal cases alleging vaccine injuries. He coordinated press and lobbying strategies with activists, pushed medical journals to publish anti-vaccine research that had been rejected, and asked anti-vaccine activists to advise on government-funded research. He also publicly discounted studies that debunked purported links between vaccines and autism, and was repeatedly described in books, news articles and autism forums as a tireless behind-the-scenes organizer.
One source with knowledge of calls between Weldon's office, CDC staffers and anti-vaccine researchers described Burns as "explosive." Burns, they said, organized meetings, brought anti-vaccine researchers like the Geiers onto calls without warning, and repeatedly demanded access to databases containing private patient information. They recalled Burns at times screaming and threatening agency funding, as Weldon sat on the House Appropriations Committee at the time.
Burns has stayed out of the public eye, as reflected in the absence of publicly available photographs. He does appear in a 2013 video from America's Future Foundation in which he talks about his career:
It's not clear what has motivated his passion over vaccines, but one former CDC staffer who interacted with Burns all those years ago described it as something like a "religious crusade."
Burns is one of dozens of new political appointees across HHS agencies, some with minimal public health experience and others with clear ties to the anti-vaccine movement that Kennedy helped build.
In the last six months, Kennedy has dismantled and partly remade the country's largest federal agency, overseeing the firings of thousands of employees and shuttering programs related to issues including mental health, senior care, cancer, and HIV and AIDS. The CDC has been without a director since March, when Trump withdrew Kennedy's pick, Weldon, and nominated Susan Monarez. Leadership roles have been left vacant or filled with political appointees who lack public health experience. Kennedy has also placed anti-vaccine allies in roles that are reshaping vaccine policy — some subtly, others more overtly — both domestically and abroad. And it is Burns who appears to be leading this network of ideologically aligned staff embedded across HHS agencies.
According to meeting recordings, internal communications reviewed by MSNBC and three sources familiar with the situation, Burns has become a central figure in subverting vaccine policy under Kennedy. It's unclear from his job title of "senior adviser" what Burns is officially tasked with, but officials with knowledge said Burns' duties were, in part, specifically targeting vaccines.
In addition to organizing the destruction and rebirth of the ACIP panel, Burns personally ordered the removal of a webpage that hosted a scientific review on the safety of thimerosal, an ingredient falsely linked to autism by anti-vaccine activists. (The ACIP panel ultimately recommended removing the preservative from influenza vaccines.) The decision to remove the report from the website, made after communication with Kennedy's office, broke from standard practice, which allows such panels to act independently of the agency. An HHS spokesperson defended the removal to MSNBC, saying the report had been posted without permission, but did not address Burns' involvement.
Kennedy's sweeping plans for vaccines include the re-examination of settled vaccine safety studies, particularly around autism. Kennedy has said that this fall he will announce preliminary findings from a reanalysis of health data — findings that critics, including those inside CDC, say are preordained and are likely to reignite disproven claims around autism and vaccines.
Kennedy's overhaul of vaccine policy is also coming amid a growing number of public health emergencies. Measles outbreaks tore through the country this year, hospitalizing hundreds and killing two unvaccinated children. The country's elimination status is under threat while vaccine hesitancy grows: a recent study found that only 40% of pregnant Americans and parents of young children said they plan to follow the recommended vaccine schedule.
Meanwhile, Burns appears to be benefitting from a power vacuum. Two Trump loyalists — Heather Flick Melanson, Kennedy's chief of staff, and Hannah Anderson, a senior policy adviser — were fired this week. Key positions, including CDC director and several division heads, remain unfilled. Nearly a third of top HHS leadership positions currently sit vacant, according to the agency's website. With few career leaders in place, political appointees have been operating with unusual authority. Burns has wielded his new power to realize an old dream.
"He's a senior adviser to the director, but there is no director," said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak publicly about the agency. "And all that he does, all day long, is work in this covert vaccine space."
Dr. Paul Offit, the inventor of a rotavirus vaccine and a longtime critic of Kennedy and the anti-vaccine movement, suggested that Kennedy's actions are like the dinosaur in "Jurassic Park," testing the fence before it breaks through.
"Activists have been shouting from the sidelines for decades," Offit said. "Now they are making policy."
Opinion: Bay Area Doctors Warn Of Danger From RFK Jr. Assault On Vaccines
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health successes of modern medicine. From smallpox to polio to measles, vaccines have saved millions of lives, protected entire generations from disability and death, and fortified our communities against the spread of infectious disease.
But this foundation of disease prevention is now under attack.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is placing political ideology above science and public health. He has embraced rhetoric and policy positions that undermine vaccine confidence and threaten vaccine availability. What have been widely debunked as fringe views are increasingly becoming the policies of the United States government, carrying real consequences for the health and safety of our nation.
Since his confirmation, Kennedy has systematically eroded confidence in vaccines. His actions have included an all-out assault on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the apolitical scientific body responsible for reviewing and recommending the composition of vaccines, including the annual influenza shot. In February, Secretary Kennedy cancelled the committee's meeting without explanation, convening the group only after significant public outcry from leading medical groups. The committee ultimately approved an updated flu vaccine for the 2025-26 season, but the delay raised legitimate concerns about whether this critical public health function will remain insulated from political interference.
In June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the advisory committee via a Wall Street Journal op-ed, replacing them with eight new members, most of whom lack expertise in immunology and infectious disease.
At the first meeting of the newly reconstituted committee, a presentation and vote on removing thimerosal — a mercury-based preservative used in some flu vaccines — was added with less than 24 hours' notice, without advanced scientific review or public input. The newly reconstituted committee voted to recommend that all flu vaccines be thimerosal-free, which contradicted longstanding CDC guidance affirming the safety of thimerosal. This unscientific decision will sow unnecessary fear and is likely to disrupt flu vaccine manufacturing timelines.
What's more, recent moves to sever ties with the World Health Organization threaten our ability to access the global surveillance data needed to reformulate vaccines like the flu shot, which must be updated each year based on evolving virus strains around the world. Without that information, our ability to protect Americans from preventable diseases will be dangerously impaired.
These actions have real-world effects. Childhood vaccination rates are declining. Measles outbreaks — once unheard of in a country with near-universal immunization — are making a deadly comeback, with the highest number of deaths in 25 years. And people with compromised immune systems, who rely on herd immunity to stay safe, are put increasingly at risk.
Supporters of these anti-vaccine movements often invoke "freedom" as their justification. But protecting vaccine access is not just about individual choice. It's about public responsibility. Vaccine programs only work when they are widespread and rooted in science, not ideology. Undermining vaccine supply chains, delaying or politicizing CDC recommendations, or withdrawing from international scientific cooperation harms not just individual families — it weakens our entire health system.
The data are overwhelming: Vaccines are among the most rigorously tested medical interventions we have. At least under prior administrations, the FDA's vaccine approval process has been robust. Post-market surveillance ensures ongoing safety.
This system is strong and proven, with recommendations based on unbiased data. It is far more trustworthy than the conspiracy theories driving Kennedy's efforts to undermine our confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Dr. Robert Edelman is past president and Joe Greaves is executive director of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, which represents over 5,000 East Bay physicians.
RFK Jr. Adopts CDC Panel Recommendation To Remove Thimerosal From Flu Shots
Delilah Alvarado
Wed, July 23, 2025 at 4:15 PM UTC
2 min read
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Capitol Hill on May 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On Wednesday endorsed a federal advisory committee's recommendation to remove a contested preservative from the few influenza vaccines that currently contain it.
Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who Kennedy hand-picked earlier this year voted last month to remove thimerosal from flu shots, elevating unproven theories the preservative causes developmental harm in children.
In a statement, HHS said Kennedy's action fulfills "a commitment to restore trust with Americans by removing risk while sustaining access to vaccines."
Typically, the CDC director signs off on recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. The role remains unfilled, however, passing the responsibility to Kennedy.
The move will affect several multi-dose vaccines that are currently marketed in the U.S., including Sanofi's Fluzone and shots from CSL Seqirus. Preservatives are used in multi-dose vials to prevent bacterial contamination. About 5% of flu shots administered in the U.S. Involve these preparations.
HHS said vaccine manufacturers confirmed they have the capacity to replace the multi-dose vials.
Thimerosal was introduced as a preservative in the 1930s. It contains mercury, but is metabolized into a form, called ethymercury, that's distinct from the methymercury form found in some fish and considered an environmental toxin.
The preservative has for years been targeted by the anti-vaccine movement. In 1999, medical groups and the CDC requested vaccine manufacturers remove thimerosal from their shots as a precautionary measure. It was removed from all routine childhood vaccines in 2001.
Removal of the preservative, however, can affect vaccine access and cost, particularly in developing countries.
Despite evidence thimerosal is safe at small levels, the ingredient has remained under fire. During the ACIP meeting in June, Lyn Redwood, president emeritus of the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, gave a presentation that rehashed animal and human cell studies on thimerosal. Initially, it had also referenced a study that does not exist, but the citation was later removed.
The committee recommended thimerosal-free shots for children, pregnant women and adults, in a series of 5-1 votes. The committee also unanimously voted to recommend annual flu shots in everyone aged 6 months and older.
Kennedy has not signed off on the annual flu recommendation, however. HHS said other recommendations made by the committee in June are "currently under review."
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