On June 9, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced that he had terminated all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The following day, AAI President, Dr. Stephen Jameson, issued a statement expressing deep alarm about the abrupt firings.
Just two days after the terminations, Secretary Kennedy swiftly named eight new members of the ACIP, without transparency or input from the scientific or medical communities. This prompted a letter from Dr. Jameson to Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, urging him to call a congressional hearing, and have Secretary Kennedy before the committee to provide testimony and answer questions about his recent vaccine policy actions.
AAI Statement
The CDC ACIP is a committee charged with developing recommendations on the use of vaccines in the U.S. The advisory committee, which has historically been populated by well-vetted and highly qualified experts in science, medicine, and public health, has provided evidence-based guidance on immunizations to the CDC Director and HHS Secretary for more than 60 years.
The June 10 public statement issued by Dr. Jameson expressed grave concern, noting that “This sweeping action, taken without scientific justification, removes a critical body of well-vetted medical and public health experts at a time when their guidance is urgently needed.” It also acknowledges that “periodic changes in committee membership are reasonable,” but notes that “an abrupt and total dismissal of all ACIP members undermines the integrity and continuity of evidence-based policymaking.”
Dr. Jameson’s statement also extended an offer to assist Secretary Kennedy: “AAI stands ready to assist Secretary Kennedy in strengthening the nation’s immunization policy framework and ensuring that public health decisions remain guided by rigorous science.” Despite AAI’s hope that Secretary Kennedy would work with the scientific community to ensure that the panel has the necessary expertise, he appointed eight new members of the ACIP just two days after the 17 members were dismissed without transparency of process, selection criteria, and relevant disclosures.
Call for Congressional Hearing
The AAI letter to Senate HELP Committee Chair Cassidy, which was also shared with his counterpart on the Committee, Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), urges him to call Secretary Kennedy to testify before the committee to speak about changes to the ACIP and other recent concerning actions regarding vaccine policy.
In the letter, Dr. Jameson cites a floor statement made by Senator Cassidy on February 4, 2025, in which he explained that his decision to vote to confirm Kennedy as the HHS Secretary was based on a number of commitments made by Kennedy related to vaccine policy. The letter from Dr. Jameson points out multiple instances in which AAI believes that the Secretary has failed to honor some of those commitments, including his promise to “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices [ACIP] without changes.”
The AAI letter also expressed distress about Secretary Kennedy’s recent move to change the CDC immunization schedule: “While AAI has broader concerns about recommendations that might be made by the reconstituted ACIP, we have already seen Kennedy take unilateral action to change the CDC immunization schedule, altering the COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for children to a ‘shared clinical decision-making’ choice and removing the recommendation completely for pregnant women. While AAI is concerned about the scientific justification for these decisions, the top-down process used to make them sets an even more concerning precedent.”
On June 16, Senators Sanders wrote a letter to Senator Cassidy urging him to open a bipartisan investigation into the ACIP terminations and other issues related to vaccine safety. AAI is closely following these actions.
Former ACIP Members Speak Out
All 17 terminated members of the ACIP co-authored a Viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on June 16. The former committee members used the article, in part, to issue a stern warning about the impact these recent vaccine actions could have on public health:
“As former ACIP members, we are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of US immunization policy, impact people’s access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put US families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses.”
