One of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new appointees to the federal government’s vaccine advisory committee has a long history of advocating against vaccines.
Angelina Farella, a Texas-based pediatrician and self-described “frontline viral doctor,” has baselessly claimed that mRNA vaccines can cause “some kind of unusual hepatitis in children,” labeled the RSV vaccine an “utter failure” and repeatedly made calls on social media to “#stoptheshots.”
Kennedy appointed Farella to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices last week, alongside Sean G. Downing, a Florida primary care physician. Farella and the CDC did not respond to requests for comment.
Their appointments come before ACIP’s March meeting, when the committee is expected to discuss COVID-19 vaccine injuries, long COVID and how the committee decides which immunizations to recommend, according to a notice posted on the Federal Register last month.
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Farella’s comments on vaccines, made on a podcast episode released in 2025 and on her X account, reflect the views of the American anti-vaccine movement that the Trump administration has reportedly sought to distance itself from ahead of the midterm election.
Several high-level CDC officials — including Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, who signed a memorandum in January that drastically cut the scope of the federal government’s recommended childhood immunization schedule — have left the agency in recent weeks.
The administration has repeatedly spread vaccine misinformation, elevated anti-vaccine voices and rolled back childhood vaccine recommendations from 17 immunizations to 11.
The CDC removed the COVID-19 vaccine from the list of recommended vaccines for healthy children in May 2025, a decision that major medical groups like the American Medical Association disagreed with.
Last summer, Kennedy fired every member of ACIP and replaced them with a hand-selected group of doctors and researchers, many of whom had expressed vaccine skepticism in the past.
The committee has since voted to stop recommending the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine and to split the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine into two separate shots.
Farella’s views appear to align with those held by Kennedy and others within the MAHA movement who have cast doubt upon the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
“We knew early on those shots did not work, and by the time the shots came out, a new strain came out. So it was ineffective anyway,” Farella said of the COVID-19 vaccine on the “Dr. Mollie James Show.” “So you’re using expired virus over and over again, saying this is safe and effective, when it’s not safe nor is it effective.”
The vast majority of scientists and doctors — as well as the CDC’s own website — say the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and helps protect from severe illness, hospitalization and death.
In 2022, the Texas Medical Board reportedly attempted to sanction Farella and remove her medical license for the alleged endangerment of a patient. Farella posted on Telegram that prevailed in the hearing and was allowed to remain a practicing physician. She later told Legal Newsline the sanctions were over a patient seeking treatment for an asthma attack and pneumonia.
“It had nothing to do with COVID. They were trying to make it into COVID,” Farella said.
Farella has also been a member of America’s Frontline Doctors, a group that protested against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. During one such protest in 2021, she told The Texan that she is not anti-vaccination and has administered other vaccines, but will not administer the COVID-19 vaccine to young patients.
“If you are a healthy American under the age of 50 there is no reason for you to get this vaccine,” Farella said at the time.
After publication, an HHS spokesperson, Andrew Nixon, said via email that Farella was “more than qualified” to serve on ACIP.
“Dr. Farella has deep experience within her portfolio including her range of clinical work, pediatric urgent care, and managing her own practice in 2004,” Nixon said. “She has served as Pediatric Chief Resident and held the position of Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch and has had the opportunity to serve other academic roles including an Adjunct Clinical Professor at William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine.”
Farella did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear how large a role ACIP will play in future changes to the childhood immunization schedule.
The upcoming meeting was originally scheduled for February, but was delayed after the CDC missed a deadline to announce the meeting in the Federal Register.
The committee’s legitimacy is also facing legal challenges: The American Academy of Pediatrics and 15 states have filed separate lawsuits calling for its disbandment, saying Kennedy’s dissolution of the committee last year and appointment of vaccine skeptics didn’t follow the “evidentiary-driven, and legally required processes for issuing recommended vaccine schedules in the United States.”
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