Top CDC vaccine adviser questions need for polio shot, other longstanding recommendations - Chair of federal panel stresses need to protect individual rights over public health

The chair of a federal vaccine advisory panel charted a new course for the committee in a podcast released Thursday — suggesting the public might want to reconsider the use of polio vaccines, arguing individual freedoms should be a north star of the panel, and pointing to the Covid pandemic as key to his thinking on health policy.

Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who became chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in December, also downplayed established science on vaccines during an interview for the podcast and suggested policy goals, not new research, were the driving force behind changing recommendations in recent months.

In a wide-ranging interview with the podcast “Why Should I Trust You?”, Milhoan painted a more detailed picture of the committee’s strategy than has been previously known as it moves to weigh recommendations for vaccines given to children and pregnant people.

When asked why the committee had revised existing recommendations, including delaying the age by which some children are immunized for hepatitis B, Milhoan said plainly: “Yeah, because we were concerned about mandates, and mandates have really harmed and increased hesitancy.”

https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/vaccine-policy-adviser-kirk-milhoan-individual-rights-trump-public-health/