Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly remade federal vaccine advisory panel will examine the cumulative effect of the childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule, the panel’s chair said Wednesday.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will also weigh recommendations for vaccines that have long been on the market, including those for measles and hepatitis B.

Martin Kulldorff made the announcement at the start of the first meeting of the ACIP since Kennedy dismissed all 17 previous members less than two weeks ago, accusing them of conflicts of interest.

Kennedy appointed a new group of eight members two days later. One withdrew just before Wednesday’s meeting during a review of his financial holdings, leaving seven members to vote on vaccine recommendations during the meeting.

“Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine. We're making vaccine recommendations and that is what we will do. Vaccines are not all good or bad,” Kulldorff said Wednesday.

The HHS chief, who co-founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and served as its chair before being confirmed to lead the department, has long

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