Four members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) have received termination notices as special government employees, according to a STAT News report, intensifying concerns about potential political interference in the nation's vaccine oversight system under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The reason for these terminations remains unclear, with sources suggesting they could result from either "political machinations" or bureaucratic errors stemming from staff cuts in offices that handle special government employee contracts. "Everyone is hoping that this was inadvertent, but concerned it may have been deliberate," one person associated with the ACIP told STAT, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Analyst Warnings Come to Fruition
The potential ACIP restructuring was anticipated by industry analysts months before Kennedy's confirmation. Truist Securities analysts wrote in a February note that one way Kennedy could influence COVID-19 vaccines would be through "restacking the ACIP panel," which comprises health experts who develop recommendations on vaccine use in the United States. "Replacing panel members with those aligning with anti-vax rhetoric could be a way to redirect public health policies," they warned.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman had similarly expressed concern in April, telling BioSpace that Kennedy's potential influence over vaccine policy was "likely to increase uncertainty and fear on to what degree RFK Jr. will seek to influence vaccine policy and recommendations going forward."
Leadership Exodus and Protocol Bypassing
The termination notices follow the high-profile resignation of ACIP co-lead Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos last week. She stepped down after Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, making this decision in advance of a scheduled ACIP vote on the matter later this month.
In an email to colleagues reported by multiple media outlets, Panagiotakopoulos wrote that her resignation was based on her belief that she is "no longer able to help the most vulnerable members" of the U.S. population.
Kennedy's announcement, made via video on X alongside FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, sidestepped traditional protocols for altering CDC recommendations. The move was made without further input from the agency's own advisors and seemingly without the knowledge of current CDC staffers, despite the ACIP having previously discussed changing from universal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to a risk-based strategy.
CDC Leadership Vacuum Compounds Concerns
These institutional changes are occurring without clear leadership at the CDC, a situation that former CDC director Robert Redfield identified as problematic during an NBC News interview. "I've been disappointed that we haven't had an aggressive director since—February, March, April, May—fighting for the resources that CDC needs," Redfield said.
The CDC's top position has remained vacant since President Donald Trump withdrew his first nominee, Dave Weldon, in March. While Kennedy has assembled the rest of his HHS leadership team, including Makary, Bhattacharya, and Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Vinay Prasad, Trump's new CDC nominee, former acting director Susan Monarez, has yet to have a confirmation hearing scheduled because she has not submitted required paperwork, according to a spokesman for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
Broader Pattern of Vaccine Policy Changes
The ACIP developments represent part of a broader pattern of vaccine policy changes under Kennedy's leadership. Beyond altering COVID-19 recommendations, HHS terminated Moderna's $760 million contract for an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, citing that the technology "remains under-tested," while simultaneously approving Moderna's next-generation mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 days later.
Additionally, HHS has announced requirements for all new vaccines to be tested in placebo-controlled trials, a policy that experts have characterized as a potential codification of anti-vaccine activism. In defending this move, Kennedy erroneously told the U.S. Senate that only COVID-19 vaccines had been tested against placebo controls.
The administration has also faced operational challenges, including errors in its Make America Healthy Again report that contained fake citations, and a class-action lawsuit filed by seven former HHS employees alleging wrongful termination based on "hopelessly error-ridden" staff records.
Public Health Impact Concerns
These institutional changes come amid rising vaccine skepticism, with a ValuePenguin survey showing 30% of Americans are vaccine skeptics and a Gallup poll revealing that the percentage considering childhood vaccines extremely important dropped from 58% in 2019 to 40% last year.
Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an FDA advisory committee member, expressed skepticism about the administration's approach to restoring vaccine confidence. "Their argument is that this is going to make people feel better, restore a trust that was lost. I think the chances of that are about zero," he told BioSpace.
The declining vaccination rates have contributed to measles outbreaks that have killed three unvaccinated people in the U.S., including two children, equaling the total measles deaths over the previous 25 years. More than 230 children have died of flu this season, and pertussis cases are rising twice as fast as last year, with over 9,000 cases reported and several states experiencing their first pertussis deaths in years.
