CDC’s once-revered vaccine panel now a “farce”—calls grow to scrap meeting

The panel is scheduled to meet Wednesday with an anti-vaccine agenda.

Jun 24, 2025 - 22:50

CDC’s once-revered vaccine panel now a “farce”—calls grow to scrap meeting

After anti-vaccine advocate and US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 experts who sat on a revered federal vaccine panel and restocked it with eight dubious members, a growing chorus of lawmakers, health experts, and public advocates are calling for a pivotal meeting scheduled for Wednesday to be scrapped and for the panel to be "dissolved" and remade with qualified members.

On June 9, Kennedy unilaterally cleaned out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Though vetting for the committee has historically taken up to two years, Kenney announced the eight new members two days later. Some of the members are clear anti-vaccine activists, others have espoused contrarian or anti-public health perspectives, and some also have little to no relevant expertise for being on ACIP.

"[T]he reconstituted ACIP is a farce," Robert Steinbrook, a director at consumer rights watchdog Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Rather than further sullying the ACIP and undermining public confidence in vaccines, this week’s meeting should be rescheduled after the Senate has confirmed a new CDC Director who can both appoint an authoritative and representative committee and be able to approve the panel’s recommendations."

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