Overview

• Sen. Bernie Sanders urged Senate HELP Committee chair Bill Cassidy to launch a bipartisan probe into Kennedy’s removal of every member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, warning it erodes public trust in vaccines.
• Seventeen former ACIP members published a JAMA op-ed stating that their abrupt ouster and replacement with vaccine skeptics has stripped the U.S. immunization program of essential expertise and continuity.
• Twenty-two senators sent a joint letter to HHS expressing alarm over the appointment of new ACIP members with documented anti-vaccine views and warning of increased misinformation risks.
• CDC scientist Fiona Havers resigned in protest, saying she no longer trusts that vaccine data will be evaluated with the scientific rigor needed for evidence-based policy under Kennedy.
• Kennedy’s mass firing of ACIP members directly contradicts his confirmation pledge to maintain the committee’s existing structure, fueling bipartisan concerns over his anti-vaccine stance.