Vaccinate Your Family’s Statement on the Updated Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Charter

This week, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publicly released an updated Advisory Committee on Immunization (ACIP) charter.  

While at first glance this may appear to be a standard administrative process, as mandated by federal law, we believe the alterations made to the charter are far from routine and raise substantial concerns. The new charter significantly alters the goal and membership of the Committee. Following the preliminary ruling in a lawsuit brought by leading medical societies and public health organizations against HHS, the Kennedy-appointed ACIP members have been deemed to have insufficient expertise to serve on a committee whose fundamental goal is to reduce vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States.  

Vaccinate Your Family is concerned with the following changes in the charter: 

• Instead of working with the medical and public health community to appoint immunization experts, this new charter changes the definition of an expert to fit the Administration’s continued aim of sowing distrust in vaccines.  

• The updated charter also expands the Committee’s focus on vaccine safety. While vaccine safety is a critical element of the Committee’s responsibilities, the work must be rooted in rigorous scientific evidence. The expanded focus on safety, without a balanced approach grounded in scientific facts, continues to undermine public confidence in vaccines. 

• Under this new charter, the ACIP will include new liaison member organizations with leadership that repeatedly promote debunked theories that vaccines cause autism.  

Continued news coverage suggests that the Administration is moving away from policies that disrupt immunization access and that the Administration does not want to take vaccines away from those who want them. These charter changes are yet another example of efforts aimed at creating confusion around vaccines, which ultimately will reduce our community protection against dangerous vaccine-preventable diseases.    

Vaccinate Your Family remains steadfast in our commitment to preventing vaccine-preventable diseases for all ages. With record breaking numbers of measles cases and concerning case reports of other vaccine-preventable diseases, addressing vaccine hesitancy and confusion have never been more essential for our nation’s health.