RFK Jr. removes all 17 members of vaccine committee for CDC
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US Health Secretary Kennedy guts vaccine advisory committee
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of a CDC panel of vaccine experts. The move is the most far-reaching in a series of actions by Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic. Scientists and experts said the changes to the vaccine panel would undermine public confidence in health agencies. All 17 ACIP members were appointed under former President Joe Biden’s administration, including 13 in 2024, HHS said.. Without their removal, Trump’s administration would not have been able to choose a majority of the committee until 2028. The CDC panel provides guidance to the CDC on which groups of people would most benefit from an already-approved vaccine. The decision drew criticism from Democrats in Congress, and one key Republican expressed concern about Kennedy’s appointment in President Donald Trump ‘s administration. “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy in a post on X.com.
Summary
Companies Long-time vaccine skeptic Kennedy criticizes ACIP
Experts say dismissal undermines confidence in health agencies
ACIP’s next meeting set for June 25-27 in Atlanta
ACIP members are already vetted for conflicts of interest
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired all 17 members of a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts and is in the process of replacing them, his department said on Monday, drawing protest from many vaccine scientists.
The move is the most far-reaching in a series of actions by Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic, to reshape U.S. regulation of vaccines, food and medicine. Scientists and experts said the changes to the vaccine panel, which recommends how vaccines are used and by whom, would undermine public confidence in health agencies.
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Kennedy promised the move would raise public confidence.
“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Kennedy said in a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has for years sown doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but he pledged to maintain the country’s existing vaccine standards to secure his appointment in President Donald Trump ‘s administration.
The Food and Drug Administration, which is overseen by Kennedy’s department, has approved a number of vaccines during his tenure despite concerns over his stances. Even so, at least one senior Republican member of Congress expressed doubts about the changes in the panel.
Kennedy said the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is rife with conflicts and has never turned down a vaccine, even though the decision to approve vaccines rests with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The CDC panel provides guidance to the CDC on which groups of people would most benefit from an already-approved vaccine.
“That’s a tragedy,” said former FDA Chief Scientist Jesse Goodman. “This is a highly professional group of scientists and physicians and others… It’s the kind of political meddling that will reduce confidence rather than increase confidence.”
Kennedy said most panel members receive funding from drugmakers although members are required to declare any potential or perceived conflicts of interest that arise in the course of their tenure and any relevant business interests, positions of authority or other connections with organizations relevant to the committee’s work.
Kennedy and HHS provided no specific evidence of industry conflicts of interest among departing ACIP members. The CDC’s web page for conflicts of interest, last updated in March, showed that one current member had recused herself from votes on a handful of vaccines because she had worked on clinical trials for their manufacturers.
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All 17 ACIP members were appointed under former President Joe Biden’s administration, including 13 in 2024, HHS said. Without their removal, Trump’s administration would not have been able to choose a majority of the committee until 2028.
“This is not a political committee, it’s never been partisan,” said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco. “It’s an expert committee. Presidents have never been involved in ACIP membership.”
The decision drew criticism from Democrats in Congress, and one key Republican expressed concern.
“Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” said Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy in a post on X. “I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”
Cassidy, a doctor from Louisiana who had expressed wariness about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views before clearing the path for him to become the nation’s top health official, said at the time he had received assurances Kennedy would protect existing vaccination programs.
The CDC panel will convene its next meeting June 25-27 at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, the department said.
Vetting new panel members typically takes months, said one expert with close ties to the committee, who expressed doubts the newly appointed panel would be able to meet on time unless Kennedy and his team “have been working in the shadows” to onboard them months ahead of the announcement.
Kennedy has drawn condemnation from health officials for his vaccine policies including what they say is a weak endorsement of the measles shots during an outbreak that has infected more than 1,000 mostly unvaccinated people and killed three.
He announced last month the government was dropping its recommendation that healthy children and pregnant women should receive COVID shots, sidestepping the typical process.
Traditionally, once the FDA approves vaccines for sale to the public, ACIP’s role is to review data in a public meeting and vote on vaccine recommendations, which are then sent to the CDC director to sign off.
The Affordable Care Act generally requires insurers to cover vaccines that are listed on the CDC vaccine schedules for adults and children. The recommendations also determine which vaccines the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program will provide free of charge to those without insurance.
Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington, Michael Erman in New York, and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Bill Berkrot and Stephen Coates
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RFK Jr. removes every member of CDC vaccine advisory committee
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he is “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. The move was quickly rebuked by a number of doctors groups. The American Medical Association said it “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives” The American College of Physicians accused Kennedy of having “circumvented the standard, transparent vaccine review processes” The CDC sets immunization schedules for both adults and children based on recommendations from ACIP, which is overseen by Kennedy, a former pediatrician and health care executive. The committee is expected to vote on new recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine recommendations on June 25, a week after a committee leader resigned from her role following an order from Kennedy to change the CDC’s guidance on the issue. the move comes after months of criticism over how Kennedy has wielded his authority and platform as the head of the nation’s public health agencies.
Kennedy said he is “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, asserting that it “has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal.
Kennedy’s move was quickly rebuked by a number of doctors groups. A statement released by the American Medical Association said it “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.” The American Academy of Pediatrics called it part of an “escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines.”
It comes after months of criticism over how Kennedy has wielded his authority and platform as the head of the nation’s public health agencies, including ordering changes to COVID-19 vaccine guidance, terminating bird flu vaccine research funding, forcing out federal vaccines officials and spreading myths about measles shots.
The members of the committee are independent medical and public health experts who advise and vote on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations. The CDC sets immunization schedules for both adults and children based on recommendations from ACIP.
Experts and health authorities closely watch the committee’s decisions, since their recommendations are tied to a number of federal policies, including requirements for insurance coverage and liability protections.
“Per the June 9, 2025 directive from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this email serves as formal notice of your immediate termination as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). We appreciate your prior service and commitment,” read an email to one committee member from the CDC.
“This is horrifying,” a CDC official said of Kennedy’s move.
The American Public Health Association denounced it as an undemocratic “coup” of the process. The Infectious Disease Society of America called it “reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful.” The American College of Physicians accused Kennedy of having “circumvented the standard, transparent vaccine review processes” at the CDC.
“Today’s announcement will seriously erode public confidence in our government’s ability to ensure the health of the American public and it will endanger the safety, welfare and lives of our patients,” Dr. Jason Goldman, the group’s president and a liaison to the committee, said in a statement.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and the top Republican in the Senate’s health committee, also expressed concern, saying “now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.”
“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case,” Cassidy posted on X.
Cassidy had been a key vote in Kennedy’s confirmation process, coming out in favor of Kennedy’s nomination only after Kennedy offered a number of reassurances, including to “maintain” the committee “without changes.”
Career CDC officials usually select experts to sit on the committee out of the applications it receives, forwarding picks to the secretary to be signed off on.
Kennedy said the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028 because some of the current members were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration.
“The prior administration made a concerted effort to lock in public health ideology and limit the incoming administration’s ability to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines,” Kennedy said.
It is unclear who is being considered to replace the committee’s members or how they are being selected. A spokesperson for the department did not comment when asked.
The move comes a week after a committee leader, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, resigned from her role following an order from Kennedy to change the CDC’s guidance on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Outside groups criticized the edits forced by Kennedy, which bypassed the longstanding advisory committee process and usurped an already-ongoing work group within the panel that had been weighing how to narrow COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Kennedy’s ouster of the committee’s members comes ahead of a meeting of the panel scheduled to start on June 25. The panel was expected to vote on new recommendations for COVID-19 and other vaccines.
Updates voted on from the last committee meeting in April to RSV and meningococcal vaccine recommendations were never adopted by Kennedy.
RFK Jr. Removes All Members of CDC Vaccine Panel
Kennedy wrote Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he would do a “clean sweep’ of the panel’s 17 members. All of them were appointed during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON—Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all the members of a key committee that recommends vaccines, and when and how often adults and children should get them.
Kennedy wrote Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he would do a “clean sweep” of the panel’s 17 members, all of whom were appointed during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Why RFK Jr. removed the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee? Who will replace them?
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices. He further announced plans to replace them with his own picks. The decision drew sharp criticism from leading medical associations and public health organisations. Kennedy claimed the panel was “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and had become “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine” The new group will meet in Atlanta in two weeks.
Though Kennedy hasn’t revealed who will replace the ousted panel members, he said the new group will meet in Atlanta in two weeks. Although it’s typically not viewed as a partisan board, the entire current roster of committee members were Biden appointees.
The removal of all 17 experts of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was revealed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an official press release.
Why RFK removed the panel? In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel was “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and had become “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
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“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.”
Meanwhile, in a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services, he said, “Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.”
“The public must know that unbiased science — evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest – guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”
Also Read | Pfizer, Moderna COVID booster shots for new strains gets approval from CDC panel
Before becoming the nation’s top health official, Kennedy was a prominent anti-vaccine activist. Kennedy, who has spent two decades promoting vaccine misinformation, cast the move as essential to restoring public trust, claiming the committee had been compromised by financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.
Department of Health Removes All Members of CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel
The 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) have been removed under the direction of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The panel provides non-binding advice on vaccines to the CDC, including on the agency’s immunization schedules. HHS alleged that the appointments were made in an effort to “lock in public health ideology and limit the incoming administration’s ability to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines” The American Medical Association criticized the move, saying the ACIP has for generations been a trusted source of guidance for doctors, parents, and officials. The CDC and its advisers are scheduled to meet June 25–27 on COVID-19 vaccines and other topics, the government recently announced. It advises the CDC on the use of vaccines, including the “effective control of vaccine-preventable diseases in the civilian population of the United States”
The 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) have been removed under the direction of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS, the CDC’s parent agency, said in a statement.
All of the members were appointed during the Biden administration, and 11 of them were set to serve on the committee until 2027 or 2028. HHS alleged that the appointments were made in an effort to “lock in public health ideology and limit the incoming administration’s ability to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines.”
“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in a statement.
A copy of a termination notice viewed by The Epoch Times said that per a June 9 directive from Kennedy, “this email serves as formal notice of your immediate termination as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.” It added, “We appreciate your prior service and commitment.”
He said the new members, who have not been identified, “will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine” and that the panel “will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas.”
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, listed as a member on the committee’s website and the interim chair of the Stanford University School of Medicine, had told The Epoch Times in an email earlier Monday that she was still a member. She did not respond when asked about the HHS announcement.
Other members whose contact information could be found either did not respond to requests for comment on Monday or declined to comment.
The panel’s members included Dr. Edwin Jose Asturias, a professor of pediatrics and infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine; Oliver Brooks, the CEO of Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles; and Dr. Jamie Loehr, the owner of Cayuga Family Medicine in New York state.
The Surgeon General established the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices in 1964. It advises the CDC on the use of vaccines, including the “effective control of vaccine-preventable diseases in the civilian population of the United States,” according to its charter
The panel provides non-binding advice on vaccines to the CDC, including on the agency’s immunization schedules. The head of the CDC typically adopts the recommendations from the committee.
Kennedy said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that the committee “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine,” adding that it “has never recommended against a vaccine, even those later withdrawn for safety reasons.”
Some criticized the move, including Dr. Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association. He said in a statement that the ACIP has for generations been a trusted source of guidance for doctors, parents, and officials. “Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” he said.
The CDC and its advisers are scheduled to meet June 25–27 on COVID-19 vaccines and other topics, the government recently announced
In an April meeting, the committee said that a subset of advisers who examined recent science on COVID-19 vaccines thought that the CDC’s universal recommendation, or the recommendation that virtually all people aged 6 months or older receive a currently-available vaccine regardless of the number of prior doses or previous infections, should be changed into a non-universal recommendation, such as a recommendation for only certain age groups.
Source: https://www.axios.com/2025/06/09/rfk-scraps-vaccine-advisory-committee