Dr. Paul Offit, a frequent critic of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been blocked from joining a panel of independent experts who advise the US Food and Drug Administration on vaccines.
An HHS spokesperson told CNN that Offit was among several advisers whose terms had expired, which means they could no longer participate in advisory committee work. Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CNN that a senior FDA official had previously asked him to extend his term, but the paperwork seemed to be delayed at HHS.
Offit is also a professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at CHOP, a former member of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory group, and an inventor of the rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq. He has clashed with Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine advocate, for years.
“I’ve been critical of RFK Jr. — I think for good reason,” Offit told CNN. But he noted that he had not been given an explanation for the delay and added, “I’ve been a vocal critic of him for many years,” including during Kennedy’s time leading the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, “which was almost 10 years ago.”
A Trump administration hiring freeze applies to Special Government Employees, which includes advisers like Offit. Renewals must go through the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.
Offit’s inability to join the FDA’s vaccine advisory panel makes him the latest in a series of experts to leave or be removed from the FDA and CDC under Kennedy. Most recently, CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, a President Donald Trump appointee, was forced out last week after only being confirmed weeks earlier, prompting the departure of several other key CDC leaders.
Offit joined the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee in 2017 and played an important role interpreting vaccine science during the Covid-19 pandemic.
His most recent term was set to end in January 2025, he said, before a senior FDA official asked him to stay for another four years. Offit agreed and filled out the required Special Government Employee forms, including financial disclosures. But he says a senior official told him that the forms were “held up” for months within HHS. Last week, he received an email saying he was no longer a member because the forms were never approved.
Kennedy has accused Offit of having conflicts of interest, a common criticism he uses against government vaccine advisers. In June, Kennedy cited such conflicts when dismissing 17 members of the CDC’s advisory panel. Offit said that candidates for that committee usually go through months of review for potential conflicts of interest.
The HHS secretary also mentioned Offit in a June interview with Fox News, saying he had voted to add the rotavirus vaccine to the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule and later sold his stake for $186 million. But Offit pointed out in a video that the vaccine was not voted on until three years after he left the CDC advisory panel, and the patent was owned by CHOP, not him.
“I worked for 26 years on that vaccine,” he told CNN. “Both the motivation and the reward from doing it were never financial. What upsets me the most is that people believe I would knowingly lie about vaccine safety or effectiveness to make money.”
Offit said he has received hate mail, been physically assaulted, and received death threats. “They hate you because they think you’re putting their children in danger for money. But it’s not true.”
He emphasized that he still trusts the advice of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, even without him.
“I love talking to my fellow committee members because they’re really smart, and I learned a lot. That’s what I’ll miss,” he told CNN. “But the VRBPAC is not weaker without me. There are a lot of really good people on that committee, so nobody should think the advice is worse because I’m not there.”
