Among the eight people Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced would make up his new group of outside vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are an emergency physician who posted Islamophobic commentary on social media and two doctors who were paid to provide expert testimony in trials against a vaccine maker.

Offit has served on committees that advise the federal government on the use of vaccines. Earlier this week, Kennedy ignited controversy for dismissing all the members of one advising the CDC.

The HHS Department sent Congress a document defending a change to federal vaccine recommendations that cited unpublished or disputed studies and misrepresented other findings, according to health expe