Martin Kulldorff is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued for a "herd immunity" strategy.

Kennedy announced he had fired all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee and would replace them with new members.

Kennedy's picks circumvented the usual CDC process for selecting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. In previous administrations, career agency officials — not political leaders — vetted potential experts before forwarding them to the department for the secretary's approval.

The new members will join the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. this week dismissed all members of a key advisory committee on vaccines, adding to chaos at the CDC. Noel Brewer, who was one of those fired,

Career officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responsible for overseeing the agency's committee of outside vaccine experts have been removed from their role in the process, multiple CDC officials tell CBS News.

There was a notable absence last week when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a 58-second video that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women.