The new chair of the federal panel that guides U.S. vaccine policy is questioning whether shots for diseases like polio remain necessary.
Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist appointed in December to lead the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, raised doubts about broad vaccination recommendations in a podcast interview released Thursday.
Appearing on "Why Should I Trust You?" Milhoan argued that public health is not the "first order" of his group and said the committee's priority should be "not public health, but individual autonomy."
"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," Milhoan said in the interview text. "Our sanitation is different, our risk of disease is different and so that those all play into the evaluation of whether this is worthwhile of taking a risk for a vaccine or not."
Milhoan also pushed back on claims that the polio and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines have a "proven" history in lowering disease rates.
"I think that 'proven' might be a little bit harsh, a little bit stronger, for what it's done because of the pre-vaccine decrease in incidence of disease, but I understand what you're saying," he said.
Milhoan criticized school vaccine requirements as "authoritarian" while rejecting the label of "anti-vaxxer."
Under federal law, ACIP is an expert advisory body that makes vaccine recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services, and CDC guidance typically follows those recommendations once adopted.
The CDC currently recommends that children receive four doses of inactivated poliovirus vaccine, starting at 2 months of age, as part of routine immunization.
The CDC also noted that the last cases of indigenously acquired wild poliovirus in the United States occurred in 1979, while a vaccine-derived polio case and associated community transmission were identified in New York in 2022.
The interview came amid renewed scrutiny of measles.
CDC guidance defines measles elimination as having no locally transmitted outbreaks lasting 12 months or longer, and the agency has said U.S. elimination status will be assessed in 2026.
In the interview exchange, Milhoan defended autonomy even when vaccination choices could affect others.
"I would say I agree there's, there are two different things at play here. We don't take one over the other," he said. "Let's just flip that the other way around. What if the child gets a measles vaccine to protect your immunocompromised child and gets a negative consequence from that? Wasn't that your child causing that child to be harmed?"
When pressed about reliance on long-standing scientific consensus, Milhoan replied that he would not use the phrase "established science" because "we've gotten trouble with that."
He later added, "Science is what I observe," and asked, "And is there a confirmation bias in what is established science?"
The American Medical Association said it was "deeply alarmed" by Milhoan's comments.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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