HHS’ recent overhaul of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has stripped the organization of valuable institutional knowledge and left the nation’s vaccine program “critically weakened,” according to a June 16 viewpoint published in JAMA.
The article was authored by all 17 former members of the CDC advisory committee, who were terminated from their roles earlier this month. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the move aims to restore public trust in vaccine science and ensure the new committee is free of conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies. Eight new members were named to ACIP on June 11, several of whom have previously shared anti-vaccine rhetoric or made unfounded claims about vaccines, according to CNBC.
In the viewpoint, the former ACIP members argued that their abrupt termination violates the committee’s design for overlapping membership terms, which is intended to ensure continuity and preserve institutional knowledge. They also raised concerns about the swift appointments of new members, noting that the selection process has historically been slow and deliberate — typically involving peer recommendations, interviews, background checks and conflict-of-interest disclosures — to ensure transparency and credibility.
The former committee members also pushed back on claims of declining public trust in ACIP, emphasizing the group’s critical role in U.S. public health over the past six decades.
“Despite recent suggestions to the contrary, health care providers and the U.S. public trust ACIP,” they wrote, citing data showing that over the past 18 years, 99% of U.S. children have received at least one ACIP-recommended vaccine by age 2.
“This does not suggest the population is so distrustful that it warrants dismantling the process by which vaccines have been recommended,” they added.
Overall, the members said their sudden termination “undermines the committee’s capacity to operate effectively and efficiently, aside from raising questions about competence,” and, when paired with recent staff reductions at the CDC, “have left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened.”
View the full op-ed here.
