U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month fired the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, some of whom were barely into their appointed terms. The new panel, appointed two weeks ago, includes a number of people known to be vaccine skeptics or “anti-vaccination.”

As critics rally outside, a newly appointed committee signals a dramatic shift in U.S. immunization strategy, raising fears about public health. A new era for vaccine policy in the United States appears to be dawning as an advisory panel,