Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines and pledged to replace them with his own picks.

Major physicians and public health groups criticized the move to oust all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Kennedy, who was one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists before becoming the nation’s top health official, has not said who he would appoint to the panel, but said it would convene in two weeks in Atlanta.

Although it’s typically not viewed as a partisan board, the current roster of committee members were appointees of then-President Joe Biden.

“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

When reached by phone, the panel’s now-former chair — Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University — declined to comment. But another panel member, Noel Brewer at the University of North Carolina, said he and other committee members received an email late Monday afternoon that said their services on the committee had been terminated but gave no reason.

Brewer is a behavioral scientist whose research examines why people get vaccinated and ways to improve vaccination coverage. Whether people get vaccinated is largely influenced by what their doctors recommend, and doctors have been following ACIP guidance.

Kennedy said the committee members had too many conflicts of interest.

Reported deaths in Gaza:Palestinians desperately trying to access aid in Gaza came under fire again Tuesday, killing 36 people and wounding 207, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Experts and humanitarian aid workers say Israel’s blockade and 20-month military campaign have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.

At least 163 people have been killed and 1,495 wounded in a number of shootings near aid sites run by the Israeli and U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which are in military zones that are off-limits to independent media. The Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions at people who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday there is “meaningful progress” on a possible ceasefire deal that would also return some of the 55 hostages still being held in Gaza, but said it was “too early to hope.”

Israel hits Yemeni docks: Israel’s navy attacked docks Tuesday in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida, launching its first seaborne assault against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels while warning more could come.

The attack on Hodeida likely damaged facilities that are key to aid shipments to the hungry, war-wracked nation, but also have allegedly been used for weapons smuggling as vessels reportedly bypass United Nations inspectors.

Both Israel and the U.S. have struck ports in the area in the past — including an American attack that killed 74 people in April — but Israel is now acting alone in attacking the rebels as they continue to fire missiles at Israel over its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Activist Thunberg deported: Israel deported activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized by the Israeli military.

Speaking upon arrival in Paris en route to her home country of Sweden, Thunberg called for the release of the other activists who were detained aboard the ship. Thunberg was one of 12 passengers on the Madleen. Israeli naval forces seized the boat Monday about 125 miles off Gaza.

The trip was meant to protest Israeli restrictions on aid to Gaza’s population of over 2 million people after 20 months of war, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group behind the journey.

Combs trial: Under cross- examination, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ex-girlfriend testified Tuesday in New York that she took part in sex acts with male sex workers at the music mogul’s request because it made her feel loved by him, but now regrets what she came to recognize as the “cuckold” lifestyle.

The woman was testifying at Combs’ sex-trafficking trial under the pseudonym “Jane” to protect her identity. A day earlier, she revealed their three-year relationship stretched up until the Bad Boy Records founder was arrested in September at New York hotel, where she’d been planning to meet him.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges that carry a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison. He has been jailed without bail.

Jane said she researched sexual variations in 2022 and came across the words “cuck” and “cuckold,” which seemed to fit the lifestyle she found herself in. She said a man known as a “cuck” derives pleasure seeing “his woman receive pleasure” from another man.

Journalist ousted: Correspondent Terry Moran, 65, is out at ABC News, two days after the organization suspended its correspondent for a social media post that called Trump administration deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world class hater.”

The network said Tuesday that it was at the end of its contract with Moran “and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision not to renew.”

The Trump administration condemned Moran for his late-night X post criticizing Miller, which was deleted.