June 16th, 2025

Uncertainty over vaccines grows
Critics appointed by RFK Jr. could affect availability and cost.
By LENA H. SUN and LAUREN WEBER • The Washington Post

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s overhaul of a federal immunization panel has created uncertainty around how widely vaccines will be available this fall and if they'll be free, according to six current and former health officials.

After Kennedy purged the influential committee that recommends vaccines and appointed his own picks, staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who provide the panel with research have now been pushed aside, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

It's unclear what direction this new group, which includes vaccine critics, will go, and whether they'll be able to give the stamp of approval needed for Americans to receive free vaccines against coronavirus and other pathogens in time for the fall vaccine season.

"If we have a system that has been dismantled — one that allowed for open, evidencebased decisionmaking and that supported transparent and clear dialogue about vaccines — and then we replace it with a process that's driven largely by one person's beliefs, that creates a system that cannot be trusted," Helen Chu, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who was ousted from the vaccine committee, said in a news conference Thursday.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the previous members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had become a rubber stamp for any vaccine.

"This group will go where the science takes them," Nixon said in a statement, noting half of the eight new appointments have previously served on federal health boards. "Secretary Kennedy has replaced vaccine groupthink with a diversity of viewpoints on ACIP."

The new group could vote on recommendations for coronavirus, influenza, meningococcal and HPV as well as RSV vaccines for adults, pregnant women and infants, according to the Federal Register notice posted this week.

The committee may also discuss additional vaccines, including for Lyme disease and anthrax.

The committee's recommendations, if approved by the CDC director, determine who can receive the vaccines and which ones insurers will cover.

While the CDC director position has been vacant, Kennedy has signed off on recommendations.

The CDC official overseeing the operations of the panel and the staff who gather and present vaccine data was removed from her role this week, according to two current and one former federal health official.
Melinda Wharton, who has nearly 20 years' experience in vaccines and immunization at the agency, has been replaced by the director of scheduling and advance in the immediate office of the CDC director.

"The biggest fear is that science and data won't be the primary drivers of decisions," said one federal health official.

"The largest public health concern is that this move will end up broadly restricting vaccine access."