The Department of Health and Human Services has quietly issued a new charter for its vaccine advisory committee, the latest move in an ongoing battle over the direction of U.S. immunization policy under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the expert panel that advises the CDC on which vaccines to recommend and for whom, received its third charter document in as many months. The new version, signed by Kennedy on May 19, replaces an April 6 charter that was withdrawn after drawing sharp criticism and legal challenges.
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), a separate but related body, also received a new charter in the same period, STAT News reported on July 20.
A committee in legal limbo
ACIP exists in an unusual state. Judge Brian Murphy’s March 16 stay in the American Academy of Pediatrics v. Kennedy litigation prohibits the committee from taking any formal action, including issuing new recommendations or updating existing ones. The stay remains active.
The April charter had rewritten ACIP’s membership eligibility requirements, added vaccine-skeptical organizations as official liaisons, and expanded the committee’s scope to revisiting existing vaccine recommendations. It also explicitly singled out mRNA vaccines for safety review, language widely seen as targeting COVID-19 vaccines.
The May 19 charter walks back some of those provisions. The explicit reference to mRNA vaccines is gone. The specific requirements for a toxicologist, a data scientist, and other disciplines have been replaced with more flexible language calling for “a balanced range of scientific, clinical, and public health expertise.”
As law professor Dorit Reiss, who has closely tracked the litigation, noted, the new language acknowledges the court’s injunction and recognizes that previous ACIP members likely would not have met the April charter’s restrictive requirements.
But the new charter also leaves Kennedy with significant flexibility. He retains ultimate authority over ACIP membership appointments, and there is no language specifying how often the committee should convene.
A pattern of personnel changes
The ACIP reshuffling is part of a broader pattern. HHS has seen a series of personnel changes under Kennedy’s leadership, with vaccine policy at the center of the turmoil. The CDC’s advisory committee structure has been repeatedly altered, a CIDRAP analysis noted in late May, with the ACIP charter itself undergoing multiple revisions.
The June 24–26 ACIP meeting remains listed on the CDC website despite the stay, which prohibits the committee from taking action. Whether the meeting will convene, and what it could accomplish under the legal restrictions, remains unclear.
Broader context
The quiet charter renewal arrives during a period of heightened attention to vaccine policy in the United States. The country is grappling with a measles outbreak that has surpassed 2,000 cases in 2026, the largest since the elimination era, and four of seven elimination-status indicators have been missed. A PAHO meeting scheduled for November may formally revoke the U.S. measles elimination status.
Meanwhile, the global picture is equally unsettled. U.S. funding cuts to global health programs have strained relationships with multilateral health bodies. CIDRAP’s May 28 analysis warned that the ripple effects of these cuts “extend far beyond U.S. borders.”
The quiet issuance of a new charter, without public announcement, has drawn criticism from vaccine policy experts who argue that changes to the nation’s immunization advisory structure should be transparent, especially when the committee remains legally blocked from performing its core functions.
Sources: Gaffney, T., Branswell, H., & Joseph, A. (2026). “HHS vaccine committee quietly gets new charter.” STAT News, July 20. Available at: statnews.com
CIDRAP (2026). “The State of US Vaccine Policy — May 28, 2026.” University of Minnesota.