Following the dismissal of 17 members from a federal vaccine advisory committee in early June, big changes are on the horizon at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Daily Signal spoke with a federal health policy expert about the impact of those changes. Robert Moffit, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health and Welfare Policy, discussed the removal of members from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and President Donald Trump’s health policy agenda.

Moffit, editor of the book “Modernizing Medicare,” expects a reevaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, an increase in vaccine testing, and a thorough examination of the conflict-of-interest rules regarding vaccine and medical device approval.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Philip Roberts: What is the purpose of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices?

Robert Moffit: To make recommendations for the vaccine schedule for CDC, and for them in turn to make recommendations to states and local public health officials about what vaccines are appropriate and what vaccines are not. That’s what CDC is supposed to do.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did exactly the right thing by firing all the Biden appointees. After all, they represented the policy agenda of the previous administration and, in several instances, they were politically engaged as financial supporters of the Democratic Party. It is profoundly naïve to believe that Biden’s appointees were merely disinterested scientists with no financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the candidate of the Biden-Harris administration, was defeated at the polls. Elections have consequences, and Americans voted for change. It is critically important for the new president and his team to have their own people in place. In the case of the Biden administration, his appointees presided over vaccine policies that were profoundly flawed, especially the illegal and unprecedented COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Kennedy has taken the right course of action by getting rid of the previous administration appointees and putting in his own.

Roberts: Can you explain what happened with the removal of ACIP members?

Moffit: Again, the Biden administration’s policies were repudiated at the polls. In a democratic society, the........

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