A two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which was originally scheduled for February but was postponed by new HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is underway today in Atlanta and will conclude with panel votes on several vaccines on Wednesday afternoon.
The independent advisers, who meet three times a year to inform vaccine policies in the U.S., today will discuss (PDF) the effectiveness of vaccines that defend against COVID-19, Mpox, chikungunya, HPV, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the flu.
The last item on Tuesday’s agenda will be an update on the U.S. measles outbreak. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 712 cases in more than 20 states, with the most concentrated spread underway in West Texas.
On Wednesday, the ACIP members will vote on recommendations for the use of Bavarian Nordic’s chikungunya vaccine Vimkunya and GSK’s five-in-one meningococcal shot Penmenvy. Both were approved by the FDA in February.
The ACIP meeting comes during a period of transition for the CDC, which has sustained significant cuts to its staff as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to streamline government through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unit.
Additionally, there is much concern about how the CDC will operate under Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has backed theories that have been debunked, including one that immunizations can cause autism.
Last month, in his resignation letter as director of the FDA’s vaccines review body, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., cited the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth” and flagged the ongoing measles outbreak as a sobering reminder of “what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined.”
Shortly after he was confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy questioned the integrity of the ACIP and advisory committees that establish nutrition guidelines.
“In the past, these people—almost all of them—have severe, severe conflicts of interest, and that’s not good for our country,” Kennedy said to Laura Ingraham of Fox News.
Ahead of the ACIP meeting, the National Health Council (NHC), which drives patient-centered health policy, stressed the importance of the panel following science.
“Our members understand firsthand the essential role immunizations play in protecting individuals with chronic conditions, who are often at greater risk of severe outcomes from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Randall Rutta, the CEO of the NHC, wrote in a letter to the ACIP. “It is critical that ACIP’s deliberations and recommendations continue to be grounded in rigorous, evidence-based science to ensure that immunization policies remain focused on advancing public health and improving outcomes for patients, particularly those with chronic conditions.”