New ACIP Charter Loosens Member Criteria, Shifts Focus
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- CDC posted a new ACIP charter to its website on Thursday, dated May 14, that broadens member qualification criteria to a "balanced range of scientific, clinical, and public health expertise" and shifts the panel's mission toward assessing "other preventive measures" and "gaps and limitations in evidence" rather than recommending new vaccines.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the entire previous ACIP committee in June 2025 and replaced members with vaccine skeptics lacking clinical trial or vaccination policy experience, prompting a federal judge to preliminarily rule that most new members lacked the qualifications to serve.
- An earlier March charter signed by Kennedy was deemed invalid, and the new document is being read by health law experts as an attempt to retroactively reframe member criteria so Kennedy's appointees can legally qualify — health law professor Sara Rosenbaum said: "When the court tells you that many of your appointments fail to meet the charter criteria and therefore the results of their deliberations must be set aside, change the charter."
- Pediatrician Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said Kennedy is "trying to retrofit the charter to make it so that the people that he brought in … qualify," stripping the panel of the expertise "that can best advise us."
- Lawyer Richard Hughes, who brought the suit on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the revised charter keeps the same underlying architecture — looser expertise requirements, a changed liaison mix, and alignment with Kennedy's vaccine agenda — while minimizing what is stated on paper to avoid legal consequences.
- Former ACIP member Charlotte Moser, fired by Kennedy in June 2025, said the revised text suggests the committee should compare vaccines with "other preventive measures" and advise on evidence gaps rather than focus on how to "effectively and safely use vaccines."
- The ACIP lawsuit remains ongoing, with both the government and the American Academy of Pediatrics filing a status report to the presiding judge Wednesday; ACIP has not yet met this calendar year despite a prior schedule of three meetings annually in February, June, and October.
Why it matters: ACIP recommendations directly determine which vaccines are covered by the Vaccines for Children program and by insurance, so reframing the panel's expertise and mission could reshape which immunizations children in the U.S. can access for free — a structural change being attempted mid-litigation after a federal judge already found Kennedy's appointees unqualified.
