November 18, 2025

New Dems Urge CDC’s Vaccine Panel to Follow the Science, Reinstate Fired Committee Members

New Dems demand the CDC recommit to evidence-based recommendations to save American lives

29 New Democrat Coalition Members, led by New Dem Representative Dr. Kim Schrier (WA-08), penned a letter to the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jim O’Neill, urging immediate changes to the procedures of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the CDC on the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

The letter follows several concerning developments regarding ACIP, which saw all 17 of its members fired in June by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. without justification. After replacing the fired ACIP members with a band of known vaccine denialists, the CDC later accepted the Committee’s September vaccine recommendations, which included limiting the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine without evidence.

The letter reads in part:

“The panel’s departure from using sound, reliable data, opting instead to cherry-pick selective studies in forming its guidance, poses a serious risk to public health. The American people deserve recommendations grounded in transparency and comprehensive evidence-based analysis. Anything less risks diminishing public trust in the CDC’s role as the gold standard for public health guidance.”

In the letter, New Dem Members call on the CDC to reinstate all 17 ACIP Members and ensure proper vetting for conflicts of interest and scientific integrity for new members, recommit to transparency and scientific rigor in all ACIP practices and recommendations, and provide evidence-based communication to the American public about recent vaccine recommendations.

You can read the full letter here, and below:

Dear Acting Director O’Neill,

We write to express our serious concerns regarding the recent acceptance of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) September 2025 vaccine recommendations and the broader erosion of scientific integrity and trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine recommendation process.

Patients, parents, and health care providers deserve clear, evidence-based guidance they can trust. Instead, ACIP experts have been replaced with unvetted and unqualified vaccine skeptics whose recent actions have fueled confusion, undermined public confidence in vaccines, and threatened the health of all Americans. At the same time, the recent round of unjustified CDC staff layoffs and the subsequent rehiring of these experts has only further eroded confidence in your agency’s leadership and decision-making. Now, amid the worst measles outbreak since 2000, when the disease had been considered eliminated in the U.S., the CDC’s recent actions are making the vaccine-preventable crisis even worse. These actions jeopardize the well-being of the American people, especially our most vulnerable children and seniors.

When the ACIP convened on September 18th to review scientific data and vaccine recommendations, the Committee instead undermined its own process standards. It failed to provide adequate notice of agenda items, presented unfounded and biased data, displayed visible confusion from members on policies and implications of their votes, and abandoned the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. Equally troubling was the Committee’s silencing of CDC experts and the exclusion of liaison representatives from medical groups directly responsible for patient care.

The panel’s departure from using sound, reliable data, opting instead to cherry-pick selective studies in forming its guidance, poses a serious risk to public health. The American people deserve recommendations grounded in transparency and comprehensive evidence-based analysis. Anything less risks diminishing public trust in the CDC’s role as the gold standard for public health guidance.

Several states and medical societies have begun issuing their own guidance, reflecting a loss of confidence in the ACIP’s ability to provide science-based recommendations. This erosion of trust risks producing a fragmented state-by-state approach to immunization policy; a patchwork that leaves gaps in protection and undermines efforts to safeguard American children and families.

Pediatricians, schools, and parents are placed in the impossible position of navigating conflicting guidance, which increases the risk of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, unnecessary hospitalizations, and deaths. The CDC itself estimates that routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented approximately 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths over 2 decades.

This breakdown in process and consistency is especially troubling as we are entering the respiratory viral season, and COVID-19 remains a serious public health threat. No compelling evidence was presented to justify shifting from a broad COVID-19 vaccination recommendation to a shared clinical-decision making approach. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Medical Association (AMA), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) have all raised grave concerns that these changes could limit vaccine access, delay protection, and narrow families’ choices in health care.

To recommit to its role as a trusted, evidence-driven authority and to ensure that future vaccine recommendations uphold scientific integrity and public confidence, we respectfully urge that the CDC:

  • Reinstate all 17 ACIP members that were fired without justification on June 9th, 2025, ensuring that any new members are properly vetted for conflicts of interest and are committed to upholding scientific integrity.

  • Recommit to transparency and scientific rigor in the ACIP process by providing adequate notice of agenda items, ensuring full participation of CDC experts and liaison representatives in working groups and public meeting discussions, and continuing to utilize standardized methodologies such as GRADE.

  • Provide clear, evidence-based communication to both health care providers and the public regarding the recently accepted ACIP recommendations, to support informed decision-making and maintain public trust in the CDC as the nation’s leading authority on public health guidance.

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