ACIP Members React to Court Order Blocking CDC Advisory Panel

Members of the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines have said they disagree with a judge’s order blocking their appointments to the panel.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said in his March 16 ruling that at least six members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) had relevant expertise.

ACIP’s charter says that members shall be “knowledgeable in the fields of immunization practice and public health, have expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety.”

Murphy named Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist, and Dr. Evelyn Griffin, Louisiana’s surgeon general, as members who were unqualified.

“That was egregious,” Milhoan, who has administered vaccines as part of his work and dealt with vaccine side effects such as heart inflammation, told The Epoch Times on March 17.

“We have some of the probably most well-rounded—not only from a scientific standpoint but also a clinical standpoint—groups that were digging deep into areas that hadn’t been touched, for transparency,” he added.

Milhoan said he was never asked about his qualifications. The judge said in his ruling that he based his conclusions on the record in the case. The only sources he cited regarding the members’ expertise were brief biographies on the ACIP website.

Murphy said the appointments of Milhoan and others made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2025 and early 2026 were being stayed because their lack of qualifications appeared to leave the panel unfairly balanced, in violation of federal law.

Blackburn, who holds a doctor of pharmacy degree and could not be reached, said in her first ACIP meeting in 2025 that she had administered hundreds of vaccines. She said she also had national immunization certification.

Griffin, who holds certification in obstetrics and gynecology and declined to comment through a spokesperson, has said she has administered vaccines to pregnant women, including the diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus shots.

Three other members, including Dr. Robert Malone, “have some experience arguably relevant to ACIP’s function” but “appear to lack the qualifications and experience to constitute expertise in vaccines and immunization,” Murphy said.

Those members, he added, were “non-experts” on using vaccines and other agents “for effective control of vaccine-preventable disease.”

Murphy noted that Malone was involved in research on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, but dismissed it as too long ago. He cited the ACIP website and a news article.

Malone told The Epoch Times that he was never approached regarding his qualifications, and noted that his curriculum vitae details a decades-long involvement with vaccine research, including working on an Ebola vaccine through 2016 and holding mRNA patents.

The judge largely relied on a news article that was “clearly defamatory,” Malone said.

Andrew Nixon, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), told The Epoch Times via email that “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.” An appeals court overturned Murphy’s ruling in a different case on Monday.

HHS declined to answer additional questions. David Mansdoerfer, who oversaw the HHS federal advisory committee process during the first Trump administration, wrote in a post on X that the judge was wrong in interpreting the balance of such committees, in part because he appeared not to have reviewed the work history of the members he criticized.

Under the ruling, fair balance “is actually constrained to the judge’s personal view on the qualifications of the appointees,” said Mansdoerfer, who added that he expects the ruling to be reversed on appeal.

Plaintiffs disagreed, including Dr. Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association.

Benjamin, a former consultant to GlaxoSmithKline, said in a March 16 statement that the ruling “underscores the need for using science in public health decision-making and using a process that engages qualified experts when it comes to recommending interventions that impact human health” and that “trust occurs when we engage the public in a transparent process, not one where decisions are made behind closed doors by unqualified individuals and presented in a disingenuous way.”