Overview

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on June 9 and appointed eight new members including known vaccine skeptics.
• Seventeen former ACIP members published an op-ed in JAMA warning that the overhaul has stripped the U.S. vaccine program of institutional knowledge and left it “critically weakened.”
• Sen. Bernie Sanders urged Senate HELP Committee chair Bill Cassidy to launch a bipartisan investigation into the firings, accusing Kennedy of misleading the public about vaccine safety.
• Twenty-two senators sent a joint letter to Kennedy expressing concern that several new appointees have documented histories of anti-vaccine ideology and misinformation.
• Senior CDC scientist Fiona Havers resigned in protest, citing a loss of confidence that data will be used objectively to guide evidence-based vaccine policy decisions.