HHS Takes Bold Step to Restore Public Trust in Vaccines by Reconstituting ACIP

Washington, DC—JUNE 9, 2025— The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today took a bold step in restoring public trust by totally reconstituting the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP), an advisory committee that makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the agency removed the 17 sitting members of the ACIP committee and will replace them with new members currently under consideration.

“Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” Secretary Kennedy said. “The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”

As directed by President Trump’s Restoring Gold Standard Science executive order, the new ACIP members will ensure that government scientific activities are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available.

The Biden administration appointed all of the 17 sitting ACIP members. Thirteen of them were appointed in 2024. These appointments would have prevented the current administration from choosing a majority of the committee until 2028. The prior administration made a concerted effort to lock in public health ideology and limit the incoming administration’s ability to take the proper actions to restore public trust in vaccines.

“A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy concluded. “ACIP's new members will prioritize public health and evidence-based medicine. The Committee will no longer function as a rubber stamp for industry profit-taking agendas. The entire world once looked to American health regulators for guidance, inspiration, scientific impartiality, and unimpeachable integrity. Public trust has eroded. Only through radical transparency and gold standard science, will we earn it back.”

ACIP will convene its next meeting June 25 through June 27 at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.