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By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The ousted members of a key panel of vaccine experts said on Monday that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s purge of the panel weakens the government’s vaccine program, may impact access to lifesaving vaccines, and puts families at risk.
Kennedy, who has a long history of questioning the safety of vaccines contrary to scientific evidence, named eight members on Wednesday to serve on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, including some who have advocated against vaccines, after abruptly firing all 17 members who had been serving on the independent expert panel earlier in the week.
"The abrupt dismissal of the entire membership of the ACIP, along with its executive secretary, on June 9, 2025, the appointment of 8 new ACIP members just 2 days later, and the recent reduction of CDC staff dedicated to immunizations have left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened," the 17 former members wrote in an article published in medical journal JAMA.
"As former ACIP members, we are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of U.S. immunization policy, impact people’s access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put U.S. families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses."
Kennedy’s move to reshape ACIP, which advises the CDC on who should get vaccines after they are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is the most far-reaching in a series of actions to reshape U.S. regulation of vaccines, food and medicine. Scientists and experts said the changes would undermine public confidence in health agencies.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy has alleged that the prior panel members, many of whom were appointed by former President Joe Biden, had conflicts of interest, without providing evidence of specific members’ conflicts. He said the move was necessary to restore public confidence in vaccines.