June 12, 2025 — HealthHIV and the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health are deeply troubled by the decision of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on June 9th, 2025. These experts served essential roles in shaping national vaccine policy, and their guidance reflected widely accepted scientific evidence and proven public health priorities.
This kind of sweeping dismissal isn’t routine and should raise serious concerns for anyone, regardless of affiliation. Recent public reporting, as well as the Secretary’s prior stated opposition to vaccine utilization as a public health strategy, suggests that the move is part of a broader effort to reshape vaccine policy oversight — despite earlier repeated and direct assurances from the Secretary regarding ACIP during his Senate confirmation hearings. Retiring the entire panel at once without a substantiated explanation or a forward-looking plan to preserve independent oversight undermines public confidence in nonpartisan, science-based advisory bodies. This move further risks disrupting essential public health functions for years to come.
ACIP exists to keep immunization policy grounded in a strong foundation of evidence-based science. When that foundation is shaken, all of our communities, and particularly those already most vulnerable, are put at greater risk. HealthHIV and the National Coalition for LGBTQ Health urge HHS to make its decision-making processes and communications regarding the public health impacts of its actions more transparent and to substantively reaffirm its commitment to protecting the integrity of public health leadership, sound science, and evidence-based public health practices like vaccination.
FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT
Scott Bertani
Director of Advocacy
[email protected]
