Vaccinate Your Family submitted the following public comment to the Federal Register ahead of the March 2026 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). It serves as an affirmation of why our organization remains committed to our mission of saving lives from vaccine-preventable diseases and outlines our concerns regarding the current ACIP.
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Vaccinate Your Family is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a 35-year history of working to protect people of all ages from vaccine-preventable diseases. We remain concerned about the ongoing actions of Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP’s) actions related to de-normalizing vaccination—one of the most important tools we have to prevent illness, chronic conditions, hospitalization, and death from infectious diseases.
According to the Federal Register notice, the Committee will discuss “updates on ACIP Workgroups and discussions on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID and ACIP recommendation methodology. Recommendation votes may be scheduled for COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID and ACIP recommendation methodology.” At Vaccinate Your Family, we are concerned about this proposed agenda for multiple reasons.
The role of the ACIP is clearly established in both the Committee’s charter and the statutes that give the Committee statutory roles. The role of the ACIP is to “provide advice and guidance to the Director of the CDC regarding use of vaccines and related agents for effective control of vaccine-preventable diseases in the civilian population of the United States.” Using the guise of a federal advisory committee to promote falsehoods about the safety and benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous and does not support the mission of effectively controlling vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). COVID-19 vaccinations are safe, effective, and have saved millions of lives across the globe.
The current HHS administration has continually created mistrust of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and innovation and minimized its benefits. This meeting serves as another example. Given the nature of our nation’s multiple, interconnected vaccine safety monitoring systems, any discussion of vaccine injuries must be done factoring in proper methodology, true understanding of the data, and in a balanced approach that weighs both risks and benefits. A proper evaluation and investigation of safety signals must occur prior to discussing potential vaccine harms. Given the abundance of evidence on the safety profile of vaccines, we are concerned this process has not properly occurred. The science is clear: the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks.
Further, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) leadership has suggested that the COVID-19 vaccine has caused childhood deaths. However, neither FDA nor HHS has provided the data or further information on these claims. This is not radical transparency. This is dangerous rhetoric that creates mistrust and confusion—confusion that will ultimately lower vaccination coverage rates (VCRs) and put our nation at risk of VPDs. Again, the science is clear. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
The Federal Register notice suggests the ACIP may vote on “COVID-19 vaccine injuries.” Both the statutes that guide the role of the ACIP and the ACIP charter clearly indicate that this would be outside the purview of the Committee. This agenda item is yet another example of the Committee attempting to vote on something outside its purview, similar to the September 2025 meeting when the ACIP voted on prescription requirements. The Committee continues to demonstrate a lack of understanding of its role and responsibility to protect Americans from VPDs.
Another continued issue is the lack of transparency and process. Anticipated votes have not been published in advance, and the Committee has diverted from the use of evidence-based frameworks (e.g., GRADE, EtR) to make decisions. For the public and scientific community to provide proper commentary and input, it is necessary to understand what the Committee plans to vote on and discuss at upcoming public meetings.
Lastly, Vaccinate Your Family remains concerned about the Committee’s continued negligence in addressing the ongoing outbreaks of VPDs and ongoing respiratory season in our nation. As of February 27, 2026, there have been 1,194 measles cases in 2026 and 79 children have died from influenza (flu) as of February 21. At Vaccinate Your Family, we know these numbers are not just statistics. These are families, parents, friends, and communities who have lost loved ones. These families include the family of Oliver; he was just 4 years old when he lost his life to the flu. Despite these ongoing outbreaks of diseases like measles, the ACIP—a committee tasked with making recommendations to protect our nation from VPDs—is not discussing mitigation strategies at its upcoming meeting.
Vaccinate Your Family will continue to work with parents, caregivers, communities, and healthcare providers to achieve our goal of protecting people of all ages from VPDs. We hope that HHS, CDC, and ACIP return to their mission of improving and protecting Americans’ health, using evidence-based decision making, and controlling VPD outbreaks—that is the true way to achieve a healthier America and restored trust in public health.