A document the Department of Health and Human Services sent to lawmakers to support Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to change U.S. policy on covid vaccines cites scientific studies that are unpublished or under dispute and mischaracterizes others.

The health secretary cited financial conflicts, but a White House official and someone familiar with his thinking said he was also concerned about ties to Democrats.

Just two days after retiring the entirety of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed several prominent critics of the government’s Covid-19 response to that committee.

Kennedy on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week.

Staff who provide data to the vaccine panel have been pushed aside, according to health officials, raising doubts about the availability and cost of some vaccines this fall.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices helps the agency make recommendations on who should get certain vaccines.

(Reuters) -U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s surprise ouster of a national vaccine advisory board, claiming it was "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest," puts new scrutiny on the group that recommends which shots should be administered to the American public.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new members of the CDC's advisory panel on immunization.