Seventeen vaccine experts who were dismissed from a federal advisory panel last week say they are worried that recent moves by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will destabilize vaccine policy in the US and jeopardize access to lifesaving immunizations.

Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines,

Meissner was previously listed in April as a consultant to the RSV vaccines work group for the CDC committee, before Kennedy fired its advisers.

Moderna's shares fell 2.3% in early trading on Friday, on concerns whether a new CDC advisory panel would back the use of the company's respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in a broader age group. The RSV shot,