A US panel stacked with figures sympathetic to the anti-vaccine movement opened a highly politicized meeting Thursday on the defensive, insisting that they are "pro-vaccine" even as public health experts fear the group is set to upend longstanding medical advice.

President Donald Trump's top health official, the anti-vax crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., handpicked the members of the medical advisory group that will vote on whether to alter the standard childhood vaccine schedule, despite warnings from across the medical and public policy communities that dire consequences could result.

"We are currently experiencing heated controversies about vaccines, and a key question is, who can you trust?" said the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), biostatistician Mart

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