RFK Jr. Taps New Chairman for Autism Advisory Panel

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tapped Dr. John Gaitanis to be the new chairman of a key U.S. autism advisory panel on Sept. 18.

Gaitanis is a pediatric neurologist with three decades of experience specializing in complex neurodevelopmental disorders, epilepsy, and autism.

The appointment of Gaitanis to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee replaces Dr. Sylvia Fogel, a Harvard Medical School instructor, as the chairperson. She will remain on the board and help with the transition process, a health department spokesperson told Reuters.

The Epoch Times contacted the Department of ​Health and Human Services for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

Kennedy appointed 21 new members to the board in an effort to help coordinate federal responses related to autism research in January, including a number of people who suggested that vaccines may, or do, cause autism.

The move to revise the panel caused a group of scientists who disagreed with Kennedy’s selections to form an alternative autism committee called the Independent Autism Coordinating Committee.

Gaitanis’ position within the Trump administration quickly grew in just a matter of weeks.

On Aug. 21, the pediatric neurologist, an advocate for the autism treatment leucovorin, was picked to lead the National Institutes of Health’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

“With the burden of chronic disease on the rise, Dr. Gaitanis’s forward-thinking approaches for NICHD research will help us adapt to the realities of today,” National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement on Aug. 21.​

“We’re eager for research advances in prevention, precision, and systems-level understanding to pinpoint root causes of these conditions and yield transformative advances in clinical care to improve health for women, children, and people with disabilities.”

As the director of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Gaitanis oversees a budget of about $1.7 billion annually, leads a staff of more than 1,100 people, and is responsible for about 2,300 research grants at universities and labs across the United States and worldwide. He will retain this position while heading the autism board.

Gaitanis, who received his medical degree from Brown Medical School, has suggested that parents should decide whether to vaccinate their children.

He previously served as chief of child neurology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and as the director of child neurology at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reuters contributed to this report.