Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed the charter for the influential Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel.
The April update pertains to both the criteria for members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the scope of the committee. Charters for federal advisory committees such as ACIP must be refiled every two years, according to federal law.
Kennedy also added four new liaison organizations to the panel that do not appear to have ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Liaisons do not vote but have historically participated in public and private committee meetings.
Key Changes
One major update is the loosening of membership requirements.
ACIP’s charter previously stated that members must have expertise in one of four categories: immunization practices; the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine; vaccine research; or the assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety.
The only exception to those requirements was for at least one person who had knowledge regarding “consumer perspectives and/or social and community aspects of immunization programs.” That usually applied to one person in the past.
The new charter says that in addition to the previously outlined expertise, members can be chosen from experts in medicine, toxicology, pediatric neurodevelopment, data science, statistical analysis, health economics, and “recovery from serious vaccine injuries, or public health.”
In 2025, Kennedy removed the existing ACIP members and selected new ones, citing concerns about conflicts of interest.
A federal judge in March stayed those appointments and updates to vaccine recommendations, some of which were made based on votes by the new members. The judge said that Kennedy and other officials did not follow proper procedure and that many of the new members lacked the expertise outlined in ACIP’s charter.
Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and one of the people selected by Kennedy, told The Epoch Times in an email that “the new charter reflects a very positive change towards [a] more comprehensive assessment of benefits and risks of vaccines that leverages and integrates [a] broader set of relevant knowledge domains and expertise.”
The updated charter also adds language on immunization safety. It now says that in addition to providing advice to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on effectively controlling vaccine-preventable diseases, ACIP will advise the CDC on “decreased symptomatology” for the diseases and “gaps in vaccine safety research including adverse effects following vaccination.” Additionally, ACIP shall also be responsible moving forward for “reviewing vaccination schedules by other countries and international organizations.”
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times in an email, “From a consumer perspective, the new ACIP charter is encouraging in that it contains language about the duty of the federal vaccine policymaking committee to review data on vaccine safety and adverse events, fill in knowledge gaps about vaccine risks, and make recommendations about vaccination schedules that take into account cumulative exposures to vaccines and vaccine components, among other factors.”
Vicky Pebsworth, who is on the information center’s board and holds a doctoral degree in health systems administration and health services organization and policy, was appointed to ACIP by Kennedy.
New Liaisons
Organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have long served as liaisons to ACIP, often working with committee subgroups behind the scenes and speaking during public meetings in favor of expanding vaccine schedules.
Allies of Kennedy recently told the health secretary that the influence of pharmaceutical companies should be limited among liaisons in an updated charter and that officials should involve organizations that have knowledge of vaccine injuries and support informed consent.
Kennedy added four such groups, including Physicians for Informed Consent, a nonprofit that often provides a view that is alternative to the CDC’s regarding vaccines.
The CDC, for instance, says that about one in 1,000 children infected with measles will die. Physicians for Informed Consent counters that the figure is based on reported cases and does not account for unreported cases.
“We have been educating the public about this (and more) for years, so we are honored and grateful to now have a seat at the ACIP table … where our points can be better heard,” Dr. Shira Miller, founder and president of Physicians for Informed Consent, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Some of the other liaisons have ties to or represent pharmaceutical interests.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, a liaison and one of the plaintiffs in the case that resulted in the recent judicial ruling, accepts money from pharmaceutical companies. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, another liaison, is composed of drug and vaccine manufacturers.
Recent ACIP meetings have featured liaisons’ criticisms of the proceedings, prompting pushback from panel members who said the liaisons were biased.
The only liaison Kennedy removed was the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, which previously said it would no longer engage with ACIP in part because health officials no longer allowed liaisons to work with ACIP subgroups. The group of obstetricians and gynecologists has received money from firms such as GlaxoSmithKline over the years.
“It is very important for the ACIP to receive input from groups not compromised by funding from enterprises the government is supposed to regulate,” Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, another new liaison, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“We hope to bring an unbiased look at the presented information, and to pose critical questions. The opinion that all vaccines brought to ACIP are ‘safe and effective’ is not unanimous. That simple fact could open the door to serious appraisals—and may be the reason for aggressive efforts to silence any skepticism.”
Reactions, Next Steps
“This is a good step toward having a committee that considers vaccine safety as well as efficacy,” Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has represented Kennedy and who sent the recent letter on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Children harmed by vaccines deserve the same protection as those potentially harmed by infectious disease.”
Del Bigtree, CEO of the network and a former communications director for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign, wrote in a post on X that when the judge’s ruling was handed down, many saw a devastating loss, but Bigtree and others saw an opportunity for change, which prompted the letter.
“These are the changes we have been fighting for,” he said. “This is what it looks like when it starts to work.”
Kennedy has not commented on the changes. The Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer specific questions about certain updates.
“The ACIP charter renewal and its publication are routine statutory requirements and do not signal any broader policy shift,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, one of the old liaisons that has been retained, said in an April 9 statement that the changes “appear to skew ACIP’s work toward vaccine safety and adverse events, rather than maintaining the committee’s balanced and thorough approach that traditionally has considered the full scope of vaccine data, including the benefits of reducing disease burden.”
Nahass said that the next steps for ACIP remain unclear.
Administration officials said in March, shortly after the judge blocked changes to ACIP and vaccine guidance, that they were confident the administration would prevail in an appeal.
Officials have not, to date, filed an appeal and have declined to explain why. They have been considering other options, including replacing the members.