RFK Jr. removes every member of CDC vaccine advisory committee

Washington — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he is removing every member of a government panel that makes vaccine recommendations.

Kennedy said he is “retiring” all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, asserting that it “has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”

“A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal.

Kennedy’s move was quickly rebuked by a number of doctors groups. A statement released by the American Medical Association said it “upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives.” The American Academy of Pediatrics called it part of an “escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines.”

It comes after months of criticism over how Kennedy has wielded his authority and platform as the head of the nation’s public health agencies, including ordering changes to COVID-19 vaccine guidance, terminating bird flu vaccine research funding, forcing out federal vaccines officials and spreading myths about measles shots.

The members of the committee are independent medical and public health experts who advise and vote on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations. The CDC sets immunization schedules for both adults and children based on recommendations from ACIP.

Experts and health authorities closely watch the committee’s decisions, since their recommendations are tied to a number of federal policies, including requirements for insurance coverage and liability protections.

“Per the June 9, 2025 directive from the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this email serves as formal notice of your immediate termination as a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). We appreciate your prior service and commitment,” read an email to one committee member from the CDC.

“This is horrifying,” a CDC official said of Kennedy’s move.

The American Public Health Association denounced it as an undemocratic “coup” of the process. The Infectious Disease Society of America called it “reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful.” The American College of Physicians accused Kennedy of having “circumvented the standard, transparent vaccine review processes” at the CDC.

“Today’s announcement will seriously erode public confidence in our government’s ability to ensure the health of the American public and it will endanger the safety, welfare and lives of our patients,” Dr. Jason Goldman, the group’s president and a liaison to the committee, said in a statement.

Kennedy raised concern about potential conflicts of interest among ACIP members, but Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said the committee members cannot own stock in or be on any kind of advisory board for pharmaceutical companies.

“Kennedy, on the other hand, is conflicted,” Gounder said on “CBS Mornings.” “He has sued multiple vaccine manufacturers. He has stood to gain or lose from the outcome of these decisions. That is by definition conflicted.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and the top Republican in the Senate’s health committee, also expressed concern, saying “now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.”

“I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case,” Cassidy posted on X.

Cassidy had been a key vote in Kennedy’s confirmation process, coming out in favor of Kennedy’s nomination only after Kennedy offered a number of reassurances, including to “maintain” the committee “without changes.”

Career CDC officials usually select experts to sit on the committee out of the applications it receives, forwarding picks to the secretary to be signed off on.

Kennedy said the Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028 because some of the current members were last-minute appointees of the Biden administration.

“The prior administration made a concerted effort to lock in public health ideology and limit the incoming administration’s ability to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines,” Kennedy said.

It is unclear who is being considered to replace the committee’s members or how they are being selected. A spokesperson for the department did not comment when asked.

The move comes a week after a committee leader, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, resigned from her role following an order from Kennedy to change the CDC’s guidance on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.

Outside groups criticized the edits forced by Kennedy, which bypassed the longstanding advisory committee process and usurped an already-ongoing work group within the panel that had been weighing how to narrow COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.

Kennedy’s ouster of the committee’s members comes ahead of a meeting of the panel scheduled to start on June 25. The panel was expected to vote on new recommendations for COVID-19 and other vaccines.

Updates voted on from the last committee meeting in April to RSV and meningococcal vaccine recommendations were never adopted by Kennedy.

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Alexander Tin

Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers federal public health agencies.

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