The chair of the federal vaccine advisory panel is calling for a reassessment of long-standing vaccine policy, including whether routine polio shots remain necessary, arguing that individual freedom — not rigid public health mandates — should guide federal health decisions.
Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who became chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in December, laid out his views during an interview on the podcast "Why Should I Trust You?"
In the wide-ranging discussion, Milhoan suggested that vaccine policy shifts in recent months were driven more by concerns about mandates than by new scientific evidence.
When asked why ACIP revised existing recommendations — including delaying the age for certain hepatitis B vaccinations — Milhoan responded: "Yeah, because we were concerned about mandates, and mandates have really harmed and increased hesitancy."
ACIP's current members were selected by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he dismissed the committee's previous members last summer, accusing them of being influenced by pharmaceutical companies.
The reconstituted panel has since recommended removing thimerosal from flu vaccines and separating combination measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella shots.
Milhoan said the new panel intends to reexamine long-settled vaccine guidance for children and pregnant women.
The interview marked his first public comments since becoming chair and since a December meeting where he was overheard comparing committee members to "puppets on a string."
"I was referring to what it's like to be a committee member when there are lots of different pressures and threats coming in," Milhoan said, rejecting the idea that Kennedy or his agency was exerting control. "I haven't had anyone say, 'Kirk, this is what we want to make sure is voted on.'"
Milhoan added that committee members have faced threats, saying, "You know, we have a whole email thread of all the threats we get as ACIPs."
Throughout the interview, Milhoan emphasized individual autonomy over public health goals.
"What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health, but individual autonomy to the first order," he said.
He also criticized pandemic-era vaccine mandates, calling the COVID-19 vaccines "a large failure," and said he does not rely on what he called "established science."
"I don't like established science," Milhoan said. "Science is what I observe."
Asked specifically about polio, Milhoan questioned whether the vaccine remains necessary today.
"I think also, as you look at polio, we need to not be afraid to consider that we are in a different time now than we were then," he said, citing sanitation and living conditions.
Milhoan insisted he does not want vaccination rates to decline.
"I don't have a desire for less people to get vaccinated," he said. "My desire is to have as low a side effect profile as we can that has the maximum efficacy in preventing disease or preventing horrible outcomes."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.