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.

Fiona Havers, who oversees CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy.

Robert F. Kennedy's overall approval rating sits at 51 percent, though the party breakdown shows a big divide between Democrats and the GOP.

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.

The new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey found adults divided over the health secretary but with a bare majority viewing him favorably.

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.

Some say the rush to categorize Martin Kulldorff underscores the intense polarization of public science that continues unabated.

A day after abruptly firing the entire committee that advises the federal government on vaccine safety, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  said he would reconstitute it with “highly credentialed physicians and scientists” amid backlash from his detractors about the terminations.