Italy’s health minister, who comes from vaccine-sceptic M5s, sacks entire expert-board of Higher Health Council

Italy’s health minister has sacked the entire board of the Higher HealthCouncil, the country’s most important committee of technical-scientific experts who advise the government on health policy.

The Guardian reports that in a move on Monday night that shocked Italian scientists, Giulia Grillo, from the Five Star Movement – a vaccine-sceptic party that has supported unproven cures for cancer – said it was “time to give space to the new”.

“We are the #governmentofchange and, as I have already done with the appointments of the various organs and committees of the ministry, I have chosen to open the door to other deserving personalities,” she wrote on Facebook.

The decision will mean the replacement of 30 board members the president, Roberta Siliquini, the head of the school of hygiene and preventive medicine at the University of Turin who was nominated in December 2017 by the former health minister Beatrice Lorenzin.

Siliquini told the Guardian that the move was concerning. “We are worried about why they have decided to remove people who were selected due to their experience and competencies at the highest level,” she said. “We are also worried about who will make up the next council and especially if the nominations are politically motivated.”