Nine pharmacy organizations sent a July 9 letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warning the CDC’s June 25 revised charter for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices could undermine the evidence-based framework guiding U.S. immunization policy.
Here are six things to know:
- The groups argue the revised charter places disproportionate emphasis on vaccine risks and shifts ACIP membership away from explicit expertise in immunization science, infectious disease and vaccinology.
- The letter states pharmacists and pharmacy personnel administer more than 62% of adult influenza vaccines, 96% of RSV vaccines and 89% of COVID-19 vaccines nationwide, citing 2025-2026 CDC dashboard data.
- As evidence of what’s at stake, the letter points to a meningococcal vaccine label change the FDA approved in May 2025 that ACIP had already reviewed but did not act on at its June 2025 meeting, a delay the groups said slowed access to the prevention option.
- The groups are urging HHS to preserve merit-based selection for ACIP voting members and liaison organizations, prioritize pharmacists with vaccinology experience for committee seats and engage directly with frontline vaccination providers on structural changes to the panel.
- The letter also calls for requiring prompt ACIP review of vaccines after FDA approvals or label changes, publishing recommendations in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and setting a minimum number of annual meetings.
- The signing organizations are the American Pharmacists Association, the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, ASCP – Age Friendly Pharmacists and Pharmacies, ASHP, the Pediatric Pharmacy Association and the Society of Infectious Diseases.
The letter follows a yearlong restructuring of ACIP that began when HHS removed all 17 committee members in June 2025. A federal judge ruled the removal unlawful in March, but the administration has appealed, and ACIP has not met this calendar year.
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