Trump HHS Rewrites CDC Vaccine Panel Charter to Broaden Membership and Emphasize ‘Gaps’ in Safety Research

The Trump administration has quietly renewed and revised the charter for CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), changing its membership criteria and mission language in ways that health‑law experts say will make it easier to seat allies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine skeptics. Published Thursday, the new charter broadens qualifications for panel members and directs ACIP not only to continue monitoring vaccine safety but also to probe "gaps in vaccine safety research," examine "cumulative effects" of shots — concepts mainstream scientists consider settled — and review other countries’ immunization schedules. The move comes after Kennedy fired all previous ACIP members, installed his own picks, and pushed the panel to stop recommending COVID‑19 vaccines even for high‑risk groups and to roll back most newborn hepatitis B shots, steps a federal judge recently blocked in a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups. Attorney Richard H. Hughes IV, who represents the AAP, argues the charter changes are part of a continuing campaign to undermine ACIP and public confidence in vaccines, while HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon insists the renewal is a routine statutory requirement and does not signal a broader policy shift. The new charter keeps ACIP sidelined for now because court orders have effectively halted its meetings, but it sets the ground rules for how the nation’s most influential vaccine advisory body will look and what questions it will prioritize if and when it resumes work, intensifying an already heated fight over federal vaccine policy and scientific independence.