Kennedy last week announced he would "retire" the entire panel that guides U.S. vaccine policy. He also quietly removed Dr. Melinda Wharton — the veteran Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who coordinated the committee's meetings.

Paul Offit knows vaccines. A trained doctor, he spent 26 years working in pediatric infectious disease and studying the rotaviruses before ultimately creating the strain that became the RotaTeq vaccine.

The 17 members of a federal vaccine advisory committee, who were ousted last week, argued their abrupt dismissal has "left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened." The group, speaking collectively for the first time since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.