A former Harvard Medical School professor who claims he was fired for refusing to receive the Covid-19 vaccine was appointed on Wednesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel for immunization policy.

A medical officer at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was working on the committee that was weighing changes to the agency’s Covid-19 vaccine recommendations resigned on Friday, the same day officials the US Department of Health and Human Services announced they had removed the CDC recommendation for pregnant women and healthy children to get Covid-19 vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. purged all previous members of the vaccine panel and said appointing new ones would restore public trust in vaccines.

There was a notable absence last week when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a 58-second video that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women.

An official at the CDC who oversaw the agency's recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines has resigned, following a week of mixed messaging from federal health officials.

The resignation follows an order by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to change the agency's guidance.

A new study from UCLA Health suggests COVID vaccines may protect patients from severe kidney damage. The study found hospitalized COVID patients were less likely to have severe kidney damage if they were vaccinated.